Mending the Spirit
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: The long procrastinated rewrite of Panacea of the Soul, where Taylor Hebert gets an intervention from a healer that ends up changing her life dramatically. Hopefully more plausible and more 'in character'.
1. Butterflies

Taylor Hebert limped out of Winslow as one foot made squelching noises while she held her arm close to her body to keep it from moving. Today, one week since she got back from the hospital, her tormentors slipped back into action. One ruined assignment (and wet foot) covered in purple grape juice and also Sophia managed to elbow her hard enough to knock her down a short set of stairs just moments ago.

Arriving minutes late to her bus stop, she saw her bus turn the corner eight hundred feet away.

"Shit," she said with no particular emphasis. Taylor looked at the posted schedule (not even vandalized!) and noted that the next bus's arrival would be in thirty-five minute. A cold gust of wind decided it for her, she started moving.

The gray clouds darkened. She wanted to curse the cold January winds that cut through her old coat. But all she could do was hobble faster.

She made it four blocks before it started to rain. Fat drops fell in a pitter-patter that sped up over time. Taylor hobbled on faster even as she looked around for someplace to duck the rain. She moved under the eaves of a bookstore cafe, only to look over at two girls exiting a slightly older small four door car. Their complaints at the wet sounded mute during the cold rain.

Why wear sunglasses during a storm? Something about the style bugged her, as it did not look fashionable.

The ringing of the bell as a stout man ran out the bookstore startled her. Taylor turned at just the wrong time as his shoulder hit her's and sent her to sprawl on the ground with a cry of pain.

"Sorry!" he shouted over his shoulder. "Shit! My bus!" He ran as fast as he could, a fast waddle.

The slightly older, blonde girl walked over and held out her hand. "Hey, are you all right?"

Taylor felt something strange, a happy and caring feeling as she took the hand to help her up. "Um, I think so?" She hissed in pain as she tried to push off with her other hand, the one she landed upon. Twice, even!

"Jerk," the darker haired teen called out to the man as she walked over to Taylor. "Let's get you inside and out of the cold."

"Um, thanks." Taylor let herself be lifted up and guided inside to a seat inside.

"Victoria, would you get me a cup of coffee and a cheese bagel?" the darker haired girl said as she sat down at Taylor's side. She studied Taylor's face, noting her shadowed eyes. She frowned as the face looked familiar.

Taylor felt the weight of her gaze. She raised her uninjured hand to pat her hair and make sure it lay correctly. "Is- Is something wrong?"

"Sorry, you look familiar."

Taylor frowned as she tried to remember if she met the other girl. "Do you go to Winslow?"

"No, sorry. I'm Amy, by the way. That's my sister Victoria."

"Taylor. So you go to Arcadia or Immaculata?" she asked.

"Arcadia," Amy replied as she shoved her sunglasses up on her forehead. "Hmm. Were you injured and had to go to the hospital?" Amy blinked as the girl paled dramatically.

The taller girl nodded her head. "Y-Yeah. I got hurt after being shoved into my locker with some really-"

"Oh, right. You had some nasty infections," Amy interrupted in a casual tone.

"Huh." Taylor finally realized who the famous girl was. "Wow, I didn't recognize you." She frowned. "No one told me you healed me. Thank you. Thank you so very much." She shivered at the memory of the horrible waste in the locker. She started to hyperventilate.

"Whoa! Relax, girl!" Victoria said in her most soothing tone as she walked back with a tray with two mugs and two bagels.

A soothing feeling filled the traumatized girl. It felt... nice and caused her to blush.

Amy blinked, then opened her eyes wide. "Victoria!"

Taylor looked between them in confusion.

"Oh, sorry. My aura."

The bespectacled girl blinked and then breathed a sigh of relief as her heart slowed down. "Oh, I thought I had just found out I was gay."

Victoria started laughing hysterically at Taylor so she missed seeing the shocked face of her sister.

The Winslow student frowned slightly. That hurt a little. And why did Amy seem more upset than she was?

The blonde looked between the two. "You must be at least a little bi-curious. That's only happened to a few bi and gay friends at school." She had a huge, wide grin on her face.

"Victoria! That's horrible!" Amy said with her face flushed red. She slapped her on the shoulder, causing her hand to sting.

"Idol of millions, you know," Victoria said, then she took a bite of her sesame seed bagel and garlic spread.

Amy turned back to Taylor and sighed. "Do I have your permission to heal you?"

"Oh, sure. You always have my permission," the other girl said and held out her hand.

The healer lay her hand over Taylor's hand and started to scan for issues and repair them. She nodded to herself as she recalled rightly that the other girl did have a Corona Pollentia and Gemma. Wow, look at her neurons fire away. Lots of bumps and bruises and a badly sprained ankle. And walking on it guaranteed to make it worse. She stopped for a second at the deep, crushing depression the girl lay under. That she could not fix. Just like her adoptive father.

Amy hummed for a minute or two and then removed her hand. "You should be all better now."

"Thank you very much," Taylor replied as she fidgeted and put her hands back on her lap. "I'm glad you healed me the first time. I can't imagine how bad the medical bills would be without that."

The healer released a soft breath of air, not wanting to talk about it. "I'm glad that it helped. I couldn't help with your... episode, but at least the infection and scratches should have been perfectly fine after the first night."

Victoria raised an eyebrow as she saw the other girl pull back and almost shrank into herself. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know how-" Taylor looked between them, her eyes wide. "If you healed me, why am I still taking the last few pills of antibiotics for the infection?"

The two sisters both stopped chewing as they parsed the question.

"Amy?" Victoria asked.

"She shouldn't need to." Amy frowned as she thought to herself. "Say, do you think you could get a copy of your billing so we can double check it? Because you shouldn't need to take any antibiotics unless you picked up something else at the hospital." And she checked to make sure that didn't happen!

"Um, maybe?" the very shy girl said. "I could ask my dad. Should I mail it to you?"

"Heck yeah!" Victoria said.

Amy frowned. She pulled up her purse and then fished out some business cards wrapped in a rubber band. She took one out and with a pen from her purse scribbled her phone number. "This is my email and phone number." Amy looked up to meet the other girl's brown eyes. "Call it if you need my help and when you have the paperwork. If you need the other help, it's on the other side." She slid it over towards Taylor.

The youngest girl looked at the innocent rectangle of paper as if it planned to bite her. She picked it up and checked the back side. "Oh. Uh, thanks?"

* * *

A few days later, Taylor trudged into her house and closed the door behind her. She stood there and just took in the homey and... worn. She shuffled up the stairs to her room and dropped her used (new to her) backpack. She dropped her bag at the side of her small desk.

She flopped onto her bed and stared at the ceiling even as she had her black widows in the basement start up to try and make a piece of cloth. All that work, ruined by Madison with a broken pen that leaked all over her homework.

Five minutes later, she rolled off the bed and to her feet. She ambled slowly down to the computer in the living room. She turned on the ancient machine that her mother had used for her grading.

The machine wheezed to life and came up to the older operating system. She clicked on the new icon for the cheap internet she put there. She winced at the squeal it made as it connected and slowly opened the web. She checked her private email just for Amy Dallon.

And then she stared at the screen, stuck and conflicted. She finally started to type a reply with care.

To:

From: taylor55

Subject: Re: Paperwork?

Hello, Amy!

So hopefully our bills will help you figure that stuff out. Do you really think they are charging people twice? Your mom is a lawyer, right? Are you guys thinking you might have to sue? I wish I had a lawyer that could help Dad and I with my school problem. They are back to doing stuff all the time and no one listens.

I talked with the suicide help line and I know they are trying, I just seem to be stuck. One of them suggested I exercise more and try to get more sun. (In New England in the winter? Crazy!) But I started jogging, but it sorta sucks.

Well, enough of that. Did you know that spider silk is supposed to be one of the strongest materials known? It stretches too much, but supposedly you could make really strong cloth out of it. And no, still not hurting any insects. They can just do so many neat things or have cool properties. I wonder how many more useful things they could do?

Do you have any funny stories from when you work? I bet you got training to get the best out of your power. Did you just have your family help you? Or did you have to get special help from the PRT because your power is so different from anyone else in New Wave? I bet new heroes have to figure out all that stuff on their own without any help. That would be really useful.

So what type of books do you like to read? I like to read science fiction and fantasy. I'm reading the Dragon Riders of Pern right now, which I really like.

Taylor

She read over it several times, correcting spelling and grammar. Hopefully she kept her bullying situation low key enough. Amy did not need any more stress on top of her work at the hospitals.

Then she turned to read through PHO to try and lighten her mood.

* * *

Amy walked into her home behind her sister, noting Carol sitting at the dinner table.

"Hey, Mom!"

Victoria did not quite bellow out, her adoptive sister noted with amusement.

"Hello. I've gone over that paperwork and then talked to Abraham in the Attorney General's office." Carol frowned at Amy, not even aware of her action. "Amy, you are grounded from going to the hospital. I've already called Brocton General to let them know."

"Grounded?" Amy said as she barely managed to control her temper.

"You aren't really grounded, of course. This is just so we can't be accused of entrapment. Those bastards even marked each invoice with a NWP for each of the ones you healed. No wonder Medhall has been so profitable for the last couple of years," the lawyer said as she tried to no grind her teeth in anger.

"So no healing unless Director Piggot calls?" Amy asked as she tried to wrap the odd concept around in her head.

"Not for now, no."

Victoria grinned at her sister. "Sounds like you get to lay around and read a book while I'm on my date!"

Amy hid her own frown. "Oh, okay." And so no patrol with Victoria, either. Drat.

"I'm going to get ready!" the blonde bombshell shouted as she shot up the stairs with her flight power.

"No flying in the house!" Carol called out. "I've got to get back to work on this case or things are going to get a bit tight here in a few weeks." She stood up and started to slide papers back into her attache. "There's frozen dinners in the freezer."

"Maybe I'll make something to eat," Amy mused as she felt at odds and unsettled.

Carol ignored her, out the door to her car.

She stepped over to the entrance to the living room where her father sat in his chair and watched some cable news channel. "Dad?"

"Yeah?" Mark looked over with dull eyes. He sat in a slump while wearing mismatched shirt, shorts, socks and a three day beard.

"I'm going to make some mac and cheese. Do you want some?" Amy asked him.

He stared at the TV commercial for hand soap for about five seconds. The football game worked as a distraction. "Can you just leave some out for me? I just-" Mark swallowed for a long moment. "The gym cut my hours again. I think the only reason they keep me on staff is because of _Flashbang_." His costumed name sounded like a swear word in his voice.

"I thought you applied a couple of more places?" she asked as she slowly stepped back to towards the kitchen.

"Everyone knows that 'flexible hours' that I need means being able to leave the job to stop villain attacks or coming in to work at noon for only five hours. It's... I'm just not feeling very social, okay?"

"Well, at least you can still go to the gym to work out, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

Amy moved back into the kitchen, cooking a simple meal for her and mark. Victoria zoomed through in her latest dress and spiffed up to a T.

"I'll be back late," she hollered as she opened the door and then shot off into the sky.

The other girl tilted her head with a smile that showed her fondness for her sister and walked over to close the door Victoria failed to close all the way on her exit. Amy went back and finished her meal, leaving a plate of mac and cheese with a side of veggies for her father. Hopefully someone would put it away before morning. Well, hopefully Mark would actually eat it before he went to bed.

Amy checked her phone and nodded as it showed only half an hour until she needed to... not go to the hospital. Dammit. She frowned and then took a bite of her pasta and looked over to the living room where the sound of a football game commentator filled the background. Time to read a book? Maybe check her email? Do homework? Email, then a novel. And finally homework at nine o'clock.

She finished her lonely meal and cleaned her dishes. Then she wandered up to her room, inhaling the scent of Victoria's favorite perfume as she passed their bathroom. A small smile appeared on her face for a second, then she entered her tiny sanctuary from everyone but Victoria. _She_ would be welcomed, of course. Amy hit the power button on her year old notebook, then wandered over to pick up a romance novel from the side of her book case blocked by the little nightstand as it booted up.

She checked her email and responded to a few acquaintances from school. The ones that wanted to be friends with _Panacea_. So she replied with distant politeness.

Then she read the email from Taylor.

Amy frowned, then bit her bottom lip. The thing with talking about bugs _every_ email was weird, but maybe understandable if you knew that she had an active Corona Gemma. She probably could control bugs. Not really the most useful powers. Well, at first glance. The questions about PRT training... that made it sound like she wanted help with her powers. Amy leaned forward onto her elbow and thought for a minute. Taylor must be worried about someone reading the email and figuring out she was a Parahuman. So she sent as subtle a message as possible to try and get some help?

A thought then occurred to her. "Oh, no. She's being bullied and can control bugs. Crap." Amy imagined a large cloud of bugs the size of a basketball, stinging and biting her tormentors. Everyone would immediately label her a villain. She should warn the PRT...

Amy's thoughts screeched to a halt. That would break the unwritten rules about cape identities _and_ betray the timid girl's trust. Ah, fiddlesticks. And the girl only sent email once a day after school. She had to do something. Didn't she?

Hmm. Well, she could just go talk to her. Probably before school, so she didn't have a chance to go all Carrie over her bullies. She'd get Victoria to give her a lift to Winslow and catch Taylor before she went inside. Then suggest she join the Wards. Amy did not want to have to heal her if she tried to go solo. Especially with only bugs for protection.

She really did not want to hear about another young hero being killed by Lung or Hookwolf.

So tomorrow morning.

* * *

A cloudy figure leaped forty feet and then landed in a controlled roll to leap off into the air in another burst of shadow mist. Shadow Stalker frowned as she searched the area again. That bastard had to be around here _somewhere_. She nearly had him last night and she really wanted to know if he had bled out. Her shadow splashed down onto the ground in an alley and reformed into Shadow Stalker, crossbow at the ready.

Her boots splashed into the puddles as rain pattered down from the dark sky. Something crashed down the alley and then a cat yowled even as she fired her crossbow. The twang sounded muffled and the bolt skittered off a wall.

"Shit. Dammit. Where the fuck is that Grue," she muttered to herself. No blood remained from the night before. She shook her head and realized she felt a bit punch drunk. She pulled out her personal cell phone and checked the time. Late!

No, very, very early. And she still had school to go to in only two hours. And a morning run to get ready for that track meet, if Piggie let her go out of the city. And didn't try another surprise inspection. Piggie _suspected_ something. She could see it in her eyes. Questions about a large splash of blood in an alley.

Shadow Stalker leaped up with a shift into her shadowy form. She solidified for a second to push off from a wall and to the roof.

Forty minutes later she arrived home, flowing into her bedroom through the cracked window. She swayed and stared at her alarm clock. She jerked as she almost nodded off while standing. Sophia took off her mask (her real self!) and went to her nightstand and pulled out a few No-Doz.

She washed down the pills with one of her energy drinks, grimacing at the tasted. Wings. _Right._ She'd take a nap right after school and before she went back to base at the PRT. The cool predator learning all of their weaknesses while she planned.

She just had to make sure that they didn't learn of her plans.

Especially Piggie. She was the dangerous one.


	2. Paranoid Confrontations

Amy's phone chirped and chirped with her alarm, waking her at six thirty. Feeling more refreshed than she has felt in ages, she sat up and stretched. She slid out of bed and stumbled towards the bathroom. A morning person she is not. Twenty minutes later, she slipped out of the bathroom and yawned. Then she tilted her head and listened. After that, Amy walked to her sister's door and read a note taped to it.

 _Out late and had a fight with E88 thugs. Didn't get home until four. Don't wake me until 9AM. At_ _least_ _9AM._

The mousy girl sighed at that. "Victoria, dang it." She grabbed her backpack with her finished homework. The sound of the TV drifted in from the living room. She stuck her head in the door to see Mark watching TV, dark shadows under his eyes. "Dad?"

"Oh, good morning, Amy. Don't wake Victoria up, she and Gallant got into a bit of a fight with the Empire Eighty-Eight at the end of their patrol," he said as he looked over.

"Did you even go to bed?" she asked.

"I'm not sleepy yet. Maybe in a few hours. Thanks for supper, by the way." He gave her a small smile at that.

She nodded, smiling back at seeing him doing better. Then she had a thought. "Say, do you think you could give me a ride to Winslow and then to school afterwards? I need to talk to a student there before she goes to class."

"Sure, I guess."

They quickly had a bowl of cereal each while listening to the weather.

Mark nodded. "That's pretty warm for late January."

"Snow on the weekend though," Amy noted and thought about getting her heavier coat out for later.

Ten minutes later, they headed out into the morning gloom.

"Do you want to drive? It will get you more hours on your learner's permit for practice," Mark asked as they walked to the 'kids' car. Which had ended up being Victoria's car by default.

"Sure!" Amy said happily. Vicky never let her drive.

She took it slow and careful, signalling and impeding traffic. She finally pulled into Winslow High School's front parking lot. The car stopped with a bit of a jerk.

"Can I have you wait here? It's a private cape business matter," Amy said to her father as she slipped her sunglasses on. Anonymity specs!

"Sure. I'll be right here." Mark frowned and put away his phone as they exited the car. He leaned against the hood and tried to look intimidating.

His daughter walked across the front lawn, looking around for Taylor. The coffee shop lay on the far side. While looking around for a couple of minutes, she spotted the distinctive hair of the girl as Taylor got off a bus. She moved to intercept.

"Taylor!" Amy called out as she waved to attract her attention.

Taylor blinked and looked surprised. "Amy?" She diverted from the door to go over to the other girl. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to you before you go and do something you might regret," the healer said.

"What? I mean, what do you mean?" she asked, suspicion layered heavily on her voice.

"You've been emailing me about... bugs. And I don't want you to regret attacking your bullies with your power," Amy said in her most comforting tone of voice. A voice that she had thought lost to herself.

"How- Oh, damn. Shit." Taylor's face turned pale.

"I haven't told anyone. While I can't heal brains, I _can_ detect the Corona Potential. So I knew you probably had a power."

"And I kept talking about bugs because I thought it was safe." Taylor glared at Amy and ignored movement off to her side and slightly behind the other girl.

"And you are safe. I won't tell anyone. But I can tell you are in a bad place here. So you need call the PRT and talk to Director Piggot-" Amy said, only to be interrupted.

"You fucking bitch!"

Amy blinked as she recognized the voice. "Shadow St-" she asked in a low tone of voice as she started to turn around.

"You goddamn fink!" Sophia roared out as she as she turned the girl's shoulder and punched Amy in the jaw with everything she had. "You're spying for Piggot, aren't you?"

Taylor stared at her tormentors in shock as they stood over the fallen form of her new friend.

* * *

A couple of minutes previously.

"Sophia!" Emma called out, a smile on her face as she spotted her best friend. "Are you all right?" Sophia did not _look_ alright.

"I've just been up for two days trying to track down an asshole," Sophia almost mumbled. She took a deep swig of a small blue and silver can of her preferred power drink. "I'm going to crash after school." She held her shaking hand behind her back, looking around nervously. The brush of a bald, White kid walking past her almost had her lash out and sock the Neo Nazi. She then clenched her hands even more tightly. _Quit jumping at shadows. Everything is all right._

"Hey, guys!" Madison called out as she almost skipped over. Seeing how worn looking Sophia appeared, she subtly moved to put Emma between them. "Oh, my, god! Who is that talking to Hebert?"

A shorter girl stood with her back to them where you could almost see her face.

"Come on, let's go scare the girl away from Taylor," Emma said in a normal tone of voice. Nothing new here.

Sophia smiled as she started to plan how she could trip, elbow or even just shoulder-check the scrawny girl. Too bad they weren't on concrete. "Sure."

Madison giggled and followed behind. She noted a few students that pulled out their phones to take pictures or record the scene.

"-tell you are in a bad place here. So you need call the PRT and talk to Director Piggot-

 _Panacea!_ Sophia realized with a start of panic, talking to Hebert about the _PRT and Piggot!?_ "You goddamn fink!" Sophia grabbed the mousey girl by her jacket's shoulder and then laid into her with a full strength cross punch to her face even as she ignored what Panacea blurted out. "You're spying for Piggot, aren't you?"

"Sophia! What the heck?" Emma asked.

Taylor stood stock still, staring at Sophia Hess. Bewilderment for a long second, understanding and then _absolute rage_ filled her. "You're a cape. A _hero_. A _Ward_." She called for insects, everything she could feel out as far as she could. A very low hum started to fill the air.

Madison squealed as she felt something touching her bare feet through her bright blue sandals. She looked down to see worms, ants and beetles crawling out of the wet grass. "Ewww! Ewww!"

Sophia's attention turned on Taylor Hebert. "What are you going to do? Revealing a cape's ID is against the unwritten rules." _Fuck!_ "Revealing a Ward's identity is even worse. The PRT will bury you," she hissed out, barely louder than a calm voice. _FUCK!_ Everything is spinning out of control.

The humming filled the air as they talked, growing louder and louder as blocks of insects awoke and streamed towards Winslow High.

A rictus of hate lay on Taylor's face. "It means that I don't have to just take it any more. That I don't have to hold back because I wanted to be a hero."

Emma blinked, trying to parse what her ex-friend said even as the sun went behind a cloud.

 _Wait a second!?_

 _It was supposed to be a clear day!_

The trio looked over to the east to see the sun just over the horizon to take in a huge cloud of black specks filling the air all around them. Screams from other students sounded out as everyone started running away.

Amy finished tapping a quick message to her dad and looked up, tears in her eyes and barely able to groan. Oh, this was _much worse_ than a basketball sized cloud of insects. _Holy shit!_

"You triggered-" Sophia said as she surged forward to punch Taylor in the face, only to see her half block the punch that still managed to break Taylor's glasses. Then _all_ of the insects swarmed down (and up from the ground) at her and started to bite. She shadowed through the insects and kneed the other girl in the guts hard. "Powers don't make you strong, Hebert." With a well practiced move, she pulled out a lock-knife and cut a sharp line across Taylor's cheek and a few inches of her neck, only barely missing her jugular vein. She shadow-stepped away to get away from the insects. "You're nothing, Hebert! You're still just a loser-"

Amy reached over and grabbed her by the leg in between her sock and tight jeans. Sophia looked down in surprise, just before a red burst of energy bounced off the ground and hit Sophia in the back and exploded with enough kinetic force to knock her away from the prone healer and to the ground ten feet away in a heap.

"Get away from my daughter," Mark Dallon shouted. "Whoever is controlling these insects, make them go away or I will blast you into next week."

"Tawlor," Amy said as she cradled her hurt jaw as she sat on the ground. "Pwease stop." She sagged back to the ground, trying to hold back the pain so she could think.

Taylor stared at her bloody hands, then the blurry smudge on the ground. "Sure. Um, I'm bleeding." She felt the blood trickling down her face and neck to the front of her torso. She released all the insects after ordering them away. Her neck was bleeding. Was she bleeding out? Taylor started to hyperventilate.

"Hold this against the wound," Emma said, pressing her cashmere scarf up against the jagged cut. "That was... pretty badass, Taylor." She suddenly smiled as she tried to stop the bleeding. "I knew you were strong. I knew you could do it!"

 _What the fuck?_ Taylor just stared at the stranger in the form of her ex-best friend.

Mark looked around, quickly checking to make sure that Sophia had a heartbeat and breathed steadily. He pulled out his phone and quickly pulled up the PRT hotline.

"Nawpped her," Amy explained as she caused even more pain when she moved her jaw. "It huwrtz. Bawd." _It hurt so much. She was not going to looked down on people being in pain again._

"This is Flashbang of New Wave. There's been a parahuman incident at Winslow High School. I have three injured teens, one of them being Panacea. We need an ambulances and the PRT," he ordered in a very brusque tone of voice. "Recognition code Zulu-Kilo-Kilo-Romeo-Niner-One-Five."

* * *

She spotted two paramedic trucks on scene and four Brockton PD cars with their lights flashing. Battery reached forward and silenced the sirens. "Car 10-8-Romeo arriving at the crime scene."

"This is dispatch, Car 1o-8-Romeo. Acknowledged arrival. PRT pacification team enroute, ten minutes," the car radio squawked.

"No sign of combat and no capes visible. I'm moving in to start the investigation," she said as she opened the door. "Over and out."

She walked fast to where the cops had several people to interview. "Flashbang?"

Mark Dallon looked over to see the young Protectorate hero. "Battery, good to see you. You should probably get Armsmaster involved as soon as possible, as this involves a Ward attacking my daughter. And possibly criminal activity against another girl."

Battery activated the record function in her ear headset radio. "What happened here?"

"My daughter, Amy Dallon, asked me to give her a ride so that she could have a private talk with a parahuman that goes to school here. For some reason, this Ward walked up and punched Amy in the jaw. The Ward confronted the parahuman that Amy came to talk to where they accused the Ward of what sounds like very serious bullying. That person then attacked your Ward with all of the insects within sight. Your Ward hurt the new parahuman pretty badly, nearly cutting her throat with a knife. That was when Amy and I both took her down. The Ward is injured, but should recover." Mark showed his experience with the concise report.

"Well... That's not very good." Battery thought for a second. "Why haven't they been evacuated?"

A police officer nodded. "We're trying to see who we need to arrest here. At this point, we're kind of looking at everyone. Including him," he said as he pointed at Mark Dallon.

"Okay, I'm taking charge and we aren't arresting _anyone_ until we get a lot more information. PRT transports will be arriving shortly to escort the ambulances to Brockton General Hospital. This is _obviously_ a parahuman incident, so we have precedence." Battery held up a hand to forestall the officers protests. "Do not make me got to the director to have her come down on your boss's head."

"Fine. Your mess, you can clean up."

She ordered as many PRT investigators as possible. Ten minutes later and afterwards two ambulances showed up. Battery had Sophia Hess loaded into one, while the unknown girl got loaded into the second. Mark Dallon offered to drive himself and his daughter in. And with Battery offering to escort, they all moved to the hospital.

Half an hour later, Armsmaster arrived with a very heavy tromp of his boots. A _very_ strong signal of his unhappiness. "Report."

"Accusations of a Ward bullying a girl, nearly apocalyptic levels of bugs and somehow Panacea all came together to out people's ID in front of dozens of camera phones. One of the BBPD detectives said something about the video of the fight having over a million hits already. PHO is going to go nuts."

" _Has_ gone nuts. The video of Sophia in some sort of freakout cold-cocking Panacea and then using her powers to attack her bullying victim is pretty damning," he replied. "Now that everyone at her school knows who she is and that her victim is a parahuman, they are falling over each other to tell their story to the police and news."

"The only good thing is that she only escalated to using a knife after the Hebert girl unleashed a biblical swarm on her. Of course, using a knife broke her parole..." Battery trailed off, waiting for him to continue.

"At least six month of juvenile incarceration and then we'll see from her shrink's reports if she's at all salvageable. I'm leaning towards not likely. I want your report done as soon as possible," he ordered.

"The problem is that all three of them are medicated and unable to be interviewed. And the other two girls aren't much use. The blonde girl clammed up and demanded her family and a lawyer. The other one is worse, as she's happy that her victim is 'strong' after all their bullying. A _real_ head case. I don't think she even understands what she did is wrong. It was 'all a prank' and just trying to get Hebert to fight back."

Armsmaster sighed. "Well, she did that and almost got Hebert killed. I've got Miller and Nachezzi from Investigations searching their houses for any evidence."

"Sounds like a busy day for everyone," Battery noted in the last of her good humor.

He just grunted in reply.

* * *

Pain and brightness filled Taylor's senses. She tried to look around, but could only see the blurry confines of a hospital room. Panic welled up in her chest, only to be quashed as she realized the differences from her last hospital stay. She tried to open her mouth and _pain_ erupted from her left cheek.

Ten minutes later, the pain lowered back down to a dull roar finally. She squinted as she looked around, finally spotting the call button on its cord where it lay helpfully by her shoulder. She pushed the middle button.

A minute or two later, a nurse appeared.

"Hello, Miss Hebert. How are you doing?" the slightly chunky, middle-aged man asked.

"Hurtz," she said as she tried to not move her mouth.

"Don't worry, it will get better pretty soon. We called in a plastic surgeon to stitch up your face with over fifty stitches. Now you stay here and I'm going to go get your father, okay?" he said with a kind smile on his round face.

"Ukay?" she managed.

Five minutes later, Danny Hebert walked into her room and gave her a tight, caring 'dad' hug. "How are you doing, Taylor?"

"It hurts, dad," she managed as she started to sound more understandable. "What happened?"

"Well, I got to find out that my daughter has super powers and that Winslow High couldn't stop the bullying. If they even tried. They are trying to hush us up, but my lawyer thinks we can get a lot more out of them by suing. I think your college fund is secure. Your mom would be very happy with that if not the reason why it happened, I think," Danny explained.

Taylor nodded. "Panacea?"

"Going to get released here in a bit. She's in a lot of pain, but her jaw isn't really broken. Just bruised really badly," he explained.

"With a hairline crack, actually, Danny. We've been waiting together in the foyer. I'm Mark Dallon. You know my daughters, of course," the muscular, middle-aged man said to Taylor. "Victoria and Amy."

"Also known as Glory Girl and Panacea, of course. I never actually caught why you were visiting my daughter at Winslow this morning," the other father said.

Amy had to talk carefully with her slightly numbed jaw. "I was worried about your daughter possibly using her powers on her bullies. I figured getting her to talk to the PRT and into the Wards might help." She frowned at that. "Now I'm not so sure."

"Yeah, I always knew that Shadow Stalker was a bad apple," Vicky declared. At her sister's disbelieving look, she sighed. "None of the Wards liked her and Gallant thought something was off with her emotions."

Someone rapped on the door. "Hello? Quite the crowd you have here," a woman said. The costumed figure of Miss Militia stepped into the room.

"And how can we help you, ma'am?" Dany asked in a cool tone of voice.

She winced at that response. "We probably deserve that response, I'm afraid. It was inexcusable that we did not hear of Shadow Stalker's actions at Winslow. For that you have my own personal apology and for the Protectorate's apology. Legend said he would try to call you personally to say so. I believe the PRT is going to be sending someone over to say something of a similar matter."

"And what is going to be done with that little psychopath that tried to cut my daughter's throat?" Danny demanded. That caused everyone else to wince in the room except Taylor.

"The Protectorate and PRT will be covering all medical expenses, for one. We will also always hold open a place in the Wards or Protectorate for you. Miss Hebert has had amazing forbearance in not retaliating with her power."

Danny raised an eyebrow at that as he showed how incredulous he felt. "And how do you know that?"

"Our investigation found quite a bit of evidence of the bullying campaign. Text messages, emails and even your daughter's hero journal. That was quite the plan to get physically ready for being a hero, on top of your designs for a bulletproof armor made of spider silk." Miss Militia smiled at that, letting them see that on her upper face above her red, white and blue scarf. "You may even end up with a small Tinker rating for that."

"Erh? I guess?" Taylor blushed at that. "But I don't want to be a Ward." She frowned at that, causing a stab of pain on her face. She looked over at the other two girls. "Since my identity is blown, can I join New Wave?"

Everyone stared at her.

"What?"


	3. Aftershocks

Vicky smiled. "Well, if it was up to me, I'd say yes. I doubt Amy would say no, either. But..."

"We'd have to talk to all of our parents. Not just dad," Amy said as she looked over at Mark and gave him a small smile.

"Don't worry, we'll have a team meeting about it tonight," Mark said and gave her a smile with a nod.

"Please, give us a call if you need anything," Miss Militia said as she held out a business card. "Even if it is just to ask any questions." And with that, she walked out of the room.

Amy sat down at the chair next to the bed. "How bad did it end up being?"

"Fifty-one stitches," Danny said as he clenched his fists.

"Shit, that's nasty," Vicky said as she walked over to stand by her sister and put her hand on Amy's shoulder.

Amy smiled at her sister's comfort. "Do I have your permission to heal you?" she asked automatically as her long habit made her sound normal rather than pained even through the pain killer drugs for her jaw. She put her hand on the skinny girl's arm.

"Sure," Taylor said as she turned to look at the other girl.

"So what is going to happen with you two?" Vicky asked as she looked between Taylor and her father.

"Taylor is not going back to Winslow if I can help it. I'll have to start calling the other school to find out what it takes to enroll," Danny explained as he kept his concerned gaze on his daughter.

Amy tried to ignore Vicky despite her being so close. She failed to stop herself from comparing Taylor to her very pretty sister and zoned out for a second. She blinked a few times and then realized she still needed to fix the cut. It only took a few moments and a few more to dissolve the stitches with a trick she figured out months ago. "That should do it. It may feel tender for a while, but that is just phantom nerve pain, but that should fade in a few hours."

"Thank you," Taylor replied as she squeezed Amy's hand before she could pull it back.

Amy blushed as she pulled her hand back. "Let me go get a nurse to remove the dressing."

"Thank you, Amy," Danny said as he patted her on the shoulder as she walked past.

She gave him a small smile as she left.

"Oh! Idea! I'll be back in about twenty minutes, okay?" Vicky said to her dad.

Mark noted her expression and sighed. She had a plan for _something._ "Don't do anything too outrageous."

She just smirked at him as she walked out of the room.

"Should we be worried?" Danny asked in good humor.

"No, she's just being mischievous there."

Taylor grinned ever so slightly.

Amy came back five minutes later and watched the nurse removed the bloody bandages. Her brow furrowed as she looked around. "Where's Vicky?"

"Trying to be cunning. Or tricky," Mark said as his lips twitched up into a grin.

Danny shifted closer to the door. "I'm going to talk to a doctor about getting you out of here, okay?"

"Sure, dad."

Twenty minutes later, he came back to see Taylor and Amy as they talked about books. He coughed to get their attention. "Taylor, it looks like we can get you out of here as soon as I go home to get you a replacement shirt."

The girl nodded at that. "Probably ruined with all the blood on it?"

"It could be cleaned, but it's just a t-shirt, right?"

Taylor nodded.

"Ha! I knew it," Vicky said as she walked in. "Luckily, I had a cunning plan!"

"Oh, no," Amy moaned as she covered her face with her hands.

Danny and Mark just stared at the girl even as she pulled a white t-shirt out of a shopping bag.

"Tada! One bug shirt in white and green!" Vicky held up the shirt to show off the stylized beatle in the center of it. "It's perfect!"

Taylor snorted in laughter. "Are you trying to be funny?"

"Since you don't have a secret ID, flaunt it!"

She just blinked in response.

"Come on, work with me here," Vicky begged.

"Okay?"

* * *

Director Emily Piggot looked from Armsmaster, two PRT troopers and a social worker. She started to talk in a very even tone of voice. "Would someone like to explain how this epic shit storm of a public relations disaster happened? Mrs. Shepherd, why don't you start with why I have no reports of any bullying?"

"I didn't receive any reports of bullying. The school has no records, either," the older, graying woman said in a terse manner.

"And where are the detailed reports on the interview with her teachers?" the director asked.

"I'm sorry?" the social worker asked as she tried to act as confused as possible.

"You were required to interview her teachers. Plural. And all I see filed here is a summary of 'sports student goes to the local high school'. Nothing about how she is doing, nor even what grade point average she is maintaining. And strangely, none of the teachers remember talking to a social worker about Miss Hess." Piggot stared at her a long time. "The only thing you seem to have done is meet with every other month for a few minutes. I will be speaking with your direct supervisor." She then turned her gaze to one of the PRT officers. "Officer Xian, perhaps you can explain why the PRT _never_ heard about any bullying as her probation officer?"

"Miss Hess has only been given two verbal warnings, mostly about her grades to stay on the track team. While I was informed of several instances of the police being called in, not once was Miss Hess mentioned," he said in a careful tone.

Piggot slapped her hand down on a folder with about ten sheets of paper in it. "This report says otherwise. It says the victim accused Miss Hess of shoving her into a locker filled with bloody tampons and pads. And caused her mental anguish and a visit to the psych ward at a hospital."

"That was not reported to me at the beginning of January," Xian said as he knit his brow in consternation. "In fact, I don't think I've been told that there was even an update on the incident."

"I expect my people to be thorough and follow up on things. Especially things that turn out to be Triggers. I am very disappointed that _you_ did not follow up on this yourself." Director Piggot then turned to look at Armsmaster. "Armsmaster, how about you explain why this violent thug managed to get away with such an attack?"

He jaw tightened. "Unfortunately, it looks like we share the blame on that. I should not have agreed to relinquish direct authority of the Wards and allowed them to be moved to Headquarters here. It appears that Triumph and Aegis both reported issues, which were not investigated nor passed on to myself or Miss Militia by their new PRT handlers here in the building. From what I can see, the officer in charge felt that most teens are always being melodramatic and acting out. Due to her anti-parahuman pathos, I've recommended that she be shifted to a department that does not interact with parahumans with an official reprimand."

"We moved them to this building because the Rig doubled our logistical problems with them," Piggot reminded him.

"Which is true, but looking over the Protectorate's efficiency, they are not the only ones that would benefit." He hated this part. "The Rig was supposed to be temporary. The only reason it has not been moved to another hot spot on the east coast is simply because Brockton Bay is still the most imperiled. Realistically, it should be repurposed as a fallback location in case of a major gang war like back in 2002." It almost hurt to say that, but his lab could be moved. "Other Protectorate teams are based in the main PRT building for their city or special area."

"So you are saying we should move the Protectorate and your support staff into this building?" Piggot leaned back in her office chair. "I had considered it, but keeping the Protectorate out there is increased security."

The last PRT officer spoke up. "While it might decrease security a bit, ma'am, it would also bring them into the city properly. And remove them from a visual pedestal, so to speak. The could be seen here as part of Brockton Bay, not as just the outsiders out in their own private clubhouse."

"Draw up a plan of action to move the Protectorate into headquarters here. Armsmaster, what is the chance that we could finesse Hebert into the Wards?" the director asked him point blank.

"Unlikely at this point. She flat out refused Miss Militia's offer and asked New Wave if she could join them," he replied.

"Set up a general security detail and house alarm for the Heberts. I'll have to figure out how to swing an hourly random patrol in her neighborhood. This is not a girl we want joining any of the gangs. Her power controls bugs out hundreds of feet." Piggot sighed and rubbed her forehead as a headache brewed. "Reach out to her and keep her informed of Hess's situation. I'll make sure the other two bullies are suspended from school."

"Hess is headed back to juvenile prison for sure?" Armsmaster asked, just to be clear.

"That is correct. She will be lucky to see the outside of prison before her 18th birthday. Darren McNeil is thinking of pushing for her to be tried as an adult, as she is not sixteen."

* * *

Taylor squinted at the small crowd of people in front of the hospital as her wheelchair rolled closer. "Dad? Guys?"

"Reporters. Guess you are the hot story right now," Vicky said as she nodded her head.

At her side, Amy sighed in soft agreement while Mark just shook his head.

The automatic doors opened in front of the group as the nurse pushed them up to the crowd that filled the background with the noise of conversations. "Excuse me, I have a patient to help to her car," he called out to the crowd. "Mr. Hebert, if you could go get your car?"

"That will be a minute. If you guys would please wait?" Danny asked the Dallon family.

"Of course," Mark said even as he looked back to the reporters. "Please, all of you calm down. Our families have gone through a traumatic experience, so I would ask that you be polite."

With that, he walked off to go get his car.

"Flashbang, do you have any comments on the fact that a Ward attacked your daughter?" a news reporter asked.

"While I am upset about the attack, we don't know everything that is going on. The PRT is investigating. I will be pressing charges against the lady if we find out she acted under her own and not under the influence of a Master. Next question?" he asked.

"Panacea, are you thinking about taking a more active role in combat?" a woman from the local gazette called out.

"Not really," she replied even as she considered it. She had taken her out on her own, after all.

"Miss Herbert? What do you plan to do now? Are you going to become a Rogue and clean up the city and make a bit of money?" another TV reporter called out.

"Um, I want to be a hero, though that is a good idea," Taylor said as she stood up. "Thanks." She nodded politely to the nurse as he went back into the hospital.

"Are you looking to go into secret identity protection and move to a new city?" the gazette reporter called out.

"Brockton Bay is my home. I, uh, asked if I could join New Wave, but they have to talk about it." She tugged at the hem of her white shirt as she wished it hung more loosely.

Danny honked his horn to get the crowd to part. Taylor walked carefully through the crowd as she used her bug sense of location more than her weak eyes.

The reporters shouted more questions, but she just got into the car and her father drove off.

"Well, that was something. You hanging in there, kiddo?" Danny asked his daughter.

"I don't actually know. It's just been so... so much today. Dad, I think something is _wrong_ with Emma. You know she was one of the bullies, right?" She continued after he nodded. "She was happy I had super powers and that I fought against Sophia, like she had been helping me or doing some major favor. Emma mentioned something about being strong."

"I'll have to talk to Alan about that. She might need to see a shrink. This city, it does things to people. Turns good people into animals if you aren't careful. And sometimes even if you are," he said.

They chatted about school and where to go in the future, which was not decided yet. Danny pulled into the driveway next to the house and glared at the plainclothes police officer standing outside.

Danny opened his door and called out, "What do you want?"

The officer held up his hands and showed his PRT badge. "Just to talk about your safety. You and your daughter's safety. We should really do this inside. I'm Officer Young."

Taylor's father frowned as he looked between the officer and his daughter. "Fine." He unlocked the door and led them in. "What happened in here?" The house looked messier than normal, though not trashed.

"A search warrant was acted upon here to gather evidence. Evidence that is likely to put away Hess and her cronies for years, considering that locker fiasco. Nothing should be harmed and the only thing missing is your daughter diary." Young rubbed his balding head.

"You make that sound like that is good enough reason," Danny said hotly as he leaned closer and over the shorter man.

"Can I be frank, Mr. Herbert-"

"Hebert," Danny corrected.

"Sorry. Mr. Hebert, the PRT was thrilled to find out your daughter wants to be a hero. We do understand that you don't feel you can trust us, but I'll be frank... your daughter is prime recruiting material. The Empire Eighty-Eight would kidnap you to force her to join and do some re-education. I've heard of some scary shit about that. Lung might do the same, but he's likely to just kill her the first time she moves against his gang. The Merchants are likely to kidnap her and addict her to some of their harshest drugs."

"And she would be safer as a Ward?" Danny narrowed his eyes even as he saw his daughter clench her fists.

"Flat out truth here, yes she would be. I understand that you do not want that. We screwed up by the numbers, thought we could rehabilitate Hess. She's headed back to juvie for her aggravated assault charge. And not likely to get out before she turns eighteen. It would be even better if you two moved to a new city and joined up, but we are willing to work with you to keep you two safe."

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked, still tense and angry.

"We will be posting PRT troops in the neighborhood and there will be regular patrols of the Protectorate and Wards through the area. We are even offering to install a very good alarm. If you aren't willing to move from the city, we would recommend that you move to a different house and would be willing to assist you with that. There are some very good gated neighborhoods up past Captain's Hill. If you are willing, we can even give you some trackers you can turn on if you do come under attack," Young explained.

"What is the catch? No one does all of this out of the kindness of their hearts?" Danny demanded.

"We want to keep your daughter out of the gangs. I don't know if you understand her power, but she can control bugs out for hundreds of feet. People were describing the situation at Winslow as something out of a biblical plague and they aren't far wrong. Your daughter could do hurt a lot of people. More capes than you would think can be as dangerous, but we can't let the gangs get her."

"Can you give us a moment?" the father asked as he pulled on his daughter's elbow gently to guide her into the kitchen. "This... isn't good."

"Yeah, I didn't think it would be so bad, but nothing he's saying sounds off," Taylor admitted. "Would you be okay if we moved to someplace more secure? I mean, this is our home."

Danny hugged her close. "No, it isn't. Home is where the family is. This is all just a house with our stuff. Stuff we can replace. Your mother would be the first to agree. She, uh, had to move one time because of the gangs."

"Really?" Taylor asked as her eyes widened.

"Really, but that was back in our college days before we got married. So we'll let them help us up to but not moving us out of the city and joining the Wards?"

"I'm not happy, but I'd be less happy being forced to work for the nazis in the city."

Danny chuckled at that. "True."

They headed back into the living room to hash out details.


	4. New Home

A week later, Danny closed the door to his home for the last time. He followed Taylor over to the large moving truck that they and some of the guys from the Union.

"Thanks for the help, guys," he called out. "I'll be in to work tomorrow early."

"No problem, Danny," Kurt called out. "Poker will be at my place on Saturday. See you, hero!" He waved to Taylor and Danny each.

The half dozen men called out and waved their goodbyes as the two of them got in the large moving truck. Taylor sent a text message to a special phone number and got a text from another number a moment later.

"We should be good to go. The PRT has some normal cars shadowing us," Taylor said. She had yet another white T-shirt with a green beetle on it under her coat, another gift from Vicky that arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. With her new glasses, she looked a bit fashionable.

"I'm still not sure about this, but if it keeps you safe, I'm more than willing to man up," he said with a tense smile to his daughter as he started the engine and shifted into drive.

"You mean keep _us_ safe," Taylor said back with a small smile. It felt less wrong. She frowned as she remember the news from Amy and Vicky on her new phone.

The parents of New Wave voted to disallow adding any new members. The sisters were not very happy with that, either.

Danny turned the corner to head downtown and flicked on the radio for some background noise.

Taylor shook her head and extended her bug-senses to get a lay of the land. A minute or two later she frowned. High pitched whines appeared in the back of the moving van. Ants crawled through the packed furniture and the truck to find devices. And with a jolt, she realized they all had the same dimensions, about the size of two quarters.

"Dad, I think someone put trackers in our stuff and in the truck," Taylor said as she looked very worried indeed.

"Call Armsmaster right now and let him know," Danny ordered. He tapped his brakes in a quick pattern and then turned off onto a side road of a safe neighborhood. After that, he jabbed the emergency flashers button on the dashboard.

The PRT unmarked car pulled up behind it.

"Hello, Armsmaster? I think there might be trackers in our stuff and on the truck we rented," Taylor said as she exited the truck with her father even as she gathered a larger swarm.

Just in case.

"We'll stay put and wait for you then," she replied.

"What did he say?" Danny asked as he looked around.

"He said to show it to the officer right here. Officer Stanley?" Taylor called out.

"Yeah?" the older officer asked as he looked around the neighborhood casually.

"I think this is a tracking device or listening device," she called out as she went to the back of the truck and pointed in the wheel well.

He nodded and crawled under the truck to search it with his pocket flashlight. "Yeah, there it is." He popped it off. "Looks Tinkertech. I'm surprised you found it." But this one was the decoy to be spotted. He reached into his pocket to pull out a lock knife to start prying it off.

"My bugs picked it up. I guess they heard it?" Taylor asked.

Stanley scooted out from under the truck and held it up on the edge. "Let me bag this for evidence." He pulled out an evidence bag and then started walking back to his car and tossed it on the passenger side seat. "Shall we get back on the road."

Taylor blinked and stared at him with her large eyes, her brows furrowed. "Um..."

The sound of a high tech motorcycle intruded as Armsmaster turned a corner. Stanley forced a smile on his face. "Armsmaster!"

The Tinker popped a kickstand and dismounted his large, armored motorcycle. "Officer Stanley, BPD will be diverting traffic. Get your men watching the approach," he ordered.

"Yes, sir." Stanley turned and pointed at the other car and then down the street. They exited their car and started walking.

Armsmaster nodded to them. "If you will stand back, I will scan the truck for unknown devices."

Danny snagged his daughter by her elbow to walk away. They watched him work for a few minutes.

"I guess this proves there's someone willing to try and get to us in our personal lives," Danny said with a frown on his face. He clenched his fists as he really wanted to punch someone right now.

Armsmaster came back twenty minutes later. "I've found and neutralized the trackers, so it should be fine to continue on to your new home. I'll still be shadowing you on a parallel course while we continue." He tried to smile even though he wanted to focus on this breach of security..

Taylor looked at the truck. "But you missed one. It's not turned on and it's in the middle of our stuff, but there's another tracker on the back of the fridge. I searched the entire truck with my bugs when I found the first one. I don't think that one is turned on though."

Armsmaster frowned as he thought it over. "Show me."

They walked over and opened the back door of the moving truck. Bugs insides moved show that it lay hidden on the back of the fridge way back in the middle and center. Armsmaster extended a thin wire-rod from his halberd to reach all the way there.

"Sensor proof. How did you find it?" he asked even as he detached it and brought it closer to deactivate so he could study it later.

"Well, I knew what shape they were so I had my bugs crawl everywhere to search for them. It didn't take long with a decent sized swarm," she explained.

Armsmaster nodded, even as he bumped her Master and Thinker rating to at least a six. "So you can be aware of everything through the bugs. That's a pretty useful Thinker ability."

"Except I can't really see or hear properly through them," she complained.

The older hero chuckled. "That's because they aren't limited to our human senses range. My first armor had what I thought was a totally silent power cell. It took me a week to realize that all the dogs near me started to bark because they could hear it in the ultrasonic range."

"Could that be true for their sight, too?" she asked him as understanding dawned on her. She had so much she had to check.

"I'm no expert, so I would try to contact an entomologist at Brockton Bay College." He slipped the latest tracker-bug into a slot in the backpack of his armor. "And with that, they are now in a micro-faraday cage so they can't transmit. That's a standard procedure. Keeps them from being tracked or destroyed by an external signal."

"Thanks, Armsmaster," Danny said as he shook hands.

Something impinged on her bug senses still. "Standard procedure?"

His helmet turned to her. "Yes. Why are you asking?"

"Because the PRT officer in the following car took the first tracker and tossed it onto his car seat," Taylor explained in a low, unhurried voice.

"Really?" he asked in a low voice. Officer Stanley? Normally a stickler for procedure. In fact, kind of a jerk about it. "Wait here."

With that, the silver and blue armored hero walked over to where the officer stood watch on the street behind them.

"Can I help you, Armsmaster?" he asked.

"Did you intend to leave that tracker out so that we could be followed to the Hebert's new home?" he asked in a stern tone.

"No, not at all," he lied. "I was just going to do that when we were ready to go."

"Jerry Stanley, you are under arrest for attempting to leak the location of the Hebert's to a third party," Armsmaster declared. "Hands in the air where I can see them."

"This is bullshit, sir," the officer said as he clenched his fists.

"Stanley, you are a _stickler_ for procedure. There is no way you forgot the briefing this morning on what to do with tracking devices-" Armsmaster suddenly kicked out and knocked Stanley's ankle out from under him. The ping of a cop-killer bullet off his armor garnered everyone's attention. "Sniper! Get down!" A containment foam grenaded shot out from his armor.

Stanley dropped to the ground and covered his head with his hands, just as the grenade went off above him to instantly cover him in foam.

Behind them, Danny tackled his daughter to the ground as gently as possible.

Armsmaster triggered thrusters to shoot back and in front of them as he scanned the area for the sniper. Where did they move to? "Stay down. Armsmaster to console. Convoy Delta-10 under fire from an unknown sniper. Requesting immediate backup. Expect casualties."

"I think I'm going back to my spider-silk idea," Taylor said in a muffled voice. "That guy that just shot at us jumped into a van going north on the street two over."

"There could be a backup sniper," Armsmaster said as he continued to scan the rooftops, windows and doorways.

"There's another van full of people to the southwest, so you might be right."

"Really?"

* * *

John Trevor watched the street in boredom as his team did the surveillance thing on the girl. No, the _target._ He swiped at a fly absently. He saw the barest flicker of a blur in front of the parked van before it felt like a bigger truck rear ended them.

Battery held herself still for five seconds as the men in the van groaned. Then with a heave, she ripped the engine out of the van.

"Shit! Protectorate!" the driver shouted, just before something hit the side of the van hard enough to flip it onto the side.

"You can surrender!" Assault shouted out even as he walked to the back of the van to open the doors.

So the lasers that shot the spot he vacated came as a huge surprise.

"Tinker laser weapons!" he then shouted much louder as he ducked low and kept moving. He moved unnaturally fast in a low hop across the ground.

The back door of the van opened just as Battery flipped the van onto its room and sent the mercenaries sprawling. Dauntless blasted two of them, then raised his shield to protect himself and gain their attention.

A moment later Armsmaster, Battery and Assault came in from the sides and their blind spots to take down the last four mercenaries.

"Coil," Armsmaster growled. They had a leak.

* * *

Hours later, the last box sat on the floor as a PRT trooper left with the truck.

"Let's get the important stuff out. Kitchen, bathroom and beds," Danny explained.

"Sure." Taylor picked up a medium sized box. She walked up to the upstairs bathroom and set the box on the sink. She looked up to the mirror. And then frowned. She leaned forward and studied the roots of her hair. "DAD!" she screamed out.

Something thumped loudly and Danny ran from the master bedroom (and its own ensuite bathroom). "Taylor! What's wrong?"

"My hair!" she sobbed. "It's growing in blonde!"

"Honey, while that's kind of odd and scary, why are you crying?" he asked as he started to hug her from behind.

"Mom! My hair, it's the only thing I have of her," she managed to get out between sniffles. "Now it's blonde!"

"You have a lot of her looks, you know," he replied as he gave her a squeeze. "In fact, she'd be jealous that you get to try being blonde. She always wanted to try, but could never quite work up the courage to make the change."

"She wanted to have blonde hair?" Taylor could not wrap her mind around that.

"It annoyed her with how much work it took to maintain. She kept threatening to cut it short. I know she wanted to try being a blonde and redhead," he said with a chuckle. "I'm sure we can do something for your roots. But I'm pretty sure there is something we can do."

"I- Well- I need to think about this." Taylor hiccuped as she twisted a lock of hair around her finger.

"Back to work, kiddo. We have pizza on the way."

Half an hour later, Taylor trotted down the sidewalk to the guarded gatehouse.

"Hebert?" the security officer asked.

"That's me," she said.

"We could have just sent him through," he noted.

"We're not supposed to do that." She gave him a shrug. She took the pizza from the delivery man and headed back up to the private house.

Danny called out after she closed the front door. "Taylor?"

"Back!"

They sat down on a clear area of the floor in the living room and started eating.

"So looking forward to school at Arcadia next week?" Danny asked.

Taylor nodded energetically. "I am." Upstairs, she directed a large swarm in setting up her new notebook computer so she could start getting online. "I should call Amy and see how I should plan to arrive."

"Why not right now?" he asked. "I got you a cell phone just for that." He took a bite of the pepperoni pizza slice he had.

"Younger New Wave's photo shoot is today, so they are going to be busy right now," Taylor complained.

"Well, let's get the basics set up here and then I'll take you to the nearest salon to see what they can do for your hair. We have enough money for that, at least."

"Really?" Taylor asked in surprise.

"Just don't expect me to wait there for you. I'll go check the bookstore and the hobby shop." Danny shuddered theatrically.

Taylor threw her left over pizza crust at him. "Dad!"

"Hey! There are starving kids all over the world!"

* * *

Taylor stepped out of her dad's car as fat snowflakes dropped from the sky. "See you tonight!"

"Take care, Taylor. Give me a call if you have any problems at all."

She smiled and turned to walk towards the gates of Arcadia. She stood up a touch straighter and headed to the gate. The security guards both caught her eye and nodded.

"-so we're out here in the cold because you don't want to possibly miss her," Amy said to her sister as they both stood next to the main doors that teens streamed by in seemingly unlimited numbers.

"Boo?" Taylor said from right behind them, but not in the slightest bit loud.

Both girl's turned their head in surprise.

"What did you do to your- You bleached it, but it looks nice," Vicky said, feeling a pang of envy. How did she get those curls to work that way?

"Oh, I learned that my mom wanted to change her hair color once, so my dad paid for a salon day." Taylor gave a nervous laugh. "Surprise?"

Amy chuckled. "Yes, surprise. You wore it, right?"

"How about Eric?" Taylor asked.

"I texted him twice and called just before he should have left," Vicky said as she bounced on the balls of her feet.

They walked in and showed Taylor the main office. They gave her a wave and headed off for class.

Twenty minutes later, Taylor carefully opened her new locker. Raised off the ground by two feet and not as big. _And_ , she noted, it had an emergency handle on the inside. Which she checked to make sure that it worked. She slipped off her coat and opened her backpack to pull out the books she would use later. She closed her locker and turned around with her backpack hugged tightly to her chest.

She walked down the hallway as she noted she only had about ten minutes to get to class.

"Taylor!" Vicky called out from down the hallways. "Oh, come on. It won't work if you cover up!"

Taylor hunched over a little more. She wanted to not hide and go on with the plan.

"Taylor, what's wrong?" Amy asked as she walked up.

"Nothing's... wrong," she mumbled as she finally lowered backpack to hang onto its top loop.

"Over here, Eric," the platinum blonde called out to her cousin as she waved him over. She gave a thumbs up to one of her school acquaintances.

"I don't know why I let you rope me into this. Wait, I do. It's because we're both upset at our moms because of the vote," the blue-haired New Wave boy said.

 _His_ white T-shirt had a simple blue shield on it. Just like Amy's white T-shirt had a simple, blocky medical red-cross. Vicky's white T-shirt has a stylized yellow tiara.

And _Taylor's_ shirt had a green beetle on it, making her look like she was part of the group.

Vicky stuck out her tongue at her cousin. "I just wish we could get Crystal here. Sigh. I guess that will have to wait until Saturday."

Amy rolled her eye as she carefully nudged Taylor with her elbow. "Come on, let's get you to class."

"Right!" Taylor nodded her head in jerky vigor.

Taylor felt like her nerves stretched out tight enough that anything more would make them snap. Oh, no one became rude with her or even said anything mean. They smiled nicely, asked questions. So _many_ questions. Most totally innocuous, except that idiot after third period that asked for her three measurements. Three girls, total strangers mind you, swatted his shoulders and the back of his head about asking for such personal information.

The worst question was, 'What is your hero name?'

Cindy Swift walked along her as Taylor headed to her locker to get her coat. "I've got it! It's perfect!"

"Um, what's perfect?" Taylor asked the preppy and pretty girl.

"It's be a contest! Think up cool names for the bug controller Taylor Hebert! We'll let you pick from the best ones!" Cindy turned her head, frowning at two other people approaching. "Hello, Vicky!"

"A contest. That's a great idea! You'll start a topic up on PHO?" she asked the some-time rival for popularity.

"I'm not geeky enough for that," Cindy replied with a pout as Taylor stopped in front of her locker. "I'll see you tomorrow, Taylor."

"Um, sure," Taylor mumbled.

"I can't believe she had a good idea," Vicky muttered to herself. "Hey, Amy! I'm going to meet Dean over at the mall. Did you want to come?"

Amy blinked and immediately started to think of an excuse as she unconsciously lapped up the buzz from Vicky's aura. "Oh, um, I was going to see if I could go over to Taylor's place before supper at home." She mentally wiped her brow with the next excuse to not go on one of her sister's unofficial dates. Few and hard to come of since she could not go healing.

"We need to get to my bus then," Taylor said as she checked her phone for any messages from the PRT.

"Give me a call when you want me to pick you up," Vicky called out as she waved and trotted off.

"So wiped out. How do you deal with, well, everyone?" Taylor asked as she pulled on her winter coat and pulled on a woolen hat over her long, light-blonde hair. She closed her locker and put her backpack over one shoulder.

"You just kind of get used to it. People are just interested in you since you are new. It'll calm down in a few weeks."

"Weeks?" Taylor whimpered out.

Amy held up a palm to a trio of girls before they could approach. "Come on."

They pushed through the crowed and walked over to the row of busses pulled up on the street on the side of Arcadia. She found the one with the PRT shield with a number 1 on its cab.

"Oh? They are letting you use our bus?" Amy asked as she noted the symbol.

"Yeah, I guess this bus route covers both of our neighborhood." Taylor walked on and found a seat and leaned forward with closed eyes. She jerked a bit at Amy patting her on the shoulder. She looked up and gave a wan smile. "Thanks."

"It's the least I could do."

The bus rumbled to life as the last students boarded and it headed out of downtown.


	5. Revelations of Awkwardness

It started to rain lightly as they stepped off the bus in front of the security gate.

"Hello, Charles. How are you this afternoon?" Taylor said to the guard as they walked up. "This is Amy Dallon."

"Miss Dallon. Always a fan of the work you do at the hospital," Charles White said as he tipped his guard hat at her.

Amy smile and it only looked a little forced. "Thank you."

"Bleh. I hate winter rain," Taylor said in complaint.

"It can be more dangerous, too. Hypothermia," Amy noted absently as she looked around the nice neighborhood. She narrowed her eyes at a steeple with a cross on it. "Oh, that's funny. My house is right over there." She pointing just to the left of the church.

"Really?" Taylor looked around. "That's not even that long of a walk. Have to go all the way back to the gate and to the next road. What, twenty minutes walking up the hill?"

"Maybe a little longer. Dad takes a little longer going to BrockC Store on the corner."

Taylor opened the door to her house and nodded her head to get Amy inside so she could close the door. She then trotted over to a picture frame to do something to the edge of the frame to open it as a cover panel. She then quickly typed in a ten digit number while looking into an eye scanner.

Amy blinked at that. "What?"

"The PRT installed a really high tech security alarm. It's a pain to disarm, the doors relock when we are inside and... it's just a pain in the butt," she groused as she slid her backpack back onto her shoulder. "My bedroom's this way."

The visitor followed her upstairs to a mostly set up bedroom with a few boxes at the end of the bed. Taylor pulled out her notebook and set it on the desk.

"So, um..." Taylor's brain stalled as she tried to think of something to talk about.

"Little Women?" Amy asked as she studied the bookshelf full of novels.

"I like to read. Mom was an English professor and made sure I appreciated the classics." Taylor sounded wistful at the end there.

"I think I heard that you lost your mother. That must be tough," Amy said as she tried to show empathy.

"It still hurts, but I'm getting on," she replied.

Amy nodded, then blinked as she saw something on Taylor's notebook. Her eyes widened as she saw bugs working together to pull a power cord to plug in the notebook. "Are you doing that? I mean, you have to be doing that, but you aren't even looking at it!"

"I'm just having them plug it in while I'm talking to you. Takes too many bugs to actually open the lid," Taylor complained.

Her friend just blink-blinked as she processed that. "I- That shouldn't even be possible. Except you do it. How do you coordinate all of them?"

"I just control them all to do what I want. Getting the leverage with spider silk and bugs pulling is a little hard to figure out at times. If I could get some really large beetles or spiders, I bet I could type, too." Taylor bounced on her bed for a second.

"Can I see one of the insect you are controlling?" Amy asked intently as she sounded more animated than Taylor ever remembered.

"Sure." She landed a fly on the hand.

"Hmm. That is odd what your power is doing with its nervous system. Or what passes for it in a bug that's that limited," Amy said as she carefully played with her power.

Taylor's hand went up to her head. "Ouch. Whatever you are doing is, um, echoing? Feedback? Ow, oh thank you."

"Sorry. You have full feedback through the connection. That's amazing. And you can do that with thousands of insects?"

"And crabs and worms. But, eh, what am I going to do with worms?" Taylor chuckled, but it felt flat and forced.

"Topple tall buildings after the worms dig out the foundation?" Amy said with a bit of snark in her tone of voice and a smirk on her lips.

The other girl's eyes lost focus for a second. "Huh, I might be able to do that. It'd take a lot of worms though."

"That was a joke. Besides what building would you want to topple?"

"Oh, point. It's just so hard figuring out how to do anything useful with insects and arachnids. The only useful thing I've started is my spider-silk. Do you want to see?" Taylor hopped to her feet.

"Sure!"

Amy let the other girl lead her down the stairs, then into the kitchen and then to a door that led down another set of stairs into the basement. Most of it lay empty, but in one section lay a long folding table with boxes, two aquariums and hanging lights.

Taylor turn on the light and showed that spiders sat in numerous jars. "I need to feed them." She pulled off bricks and boards used as 'caps' for the bottles and guided the spiders out while flies and gnats moved to let the spiders eat them.

"That doesn't upset you? The bugs dying?" Amy asked as the spiders finished their meals quickly.

The other girl shrugged. "Not really? Bugs are killing each other all the time if I'm not exerting control over them. Dad suggested a couple of things to play around with weaving. This roller lets the black widows work in making the strip of cloth that hangs down."

Dozens of the deadly arachnids danced a dizzying pattern creating centimeters of cloth at a time. Beatles pulled more silk threads to turn roller, pulling the new spider-silk up.

"That looks pretty consistent and almost machine made," Amy noted curiously. She poked a finger down to brush a black widow. "That's... odd. It's biochemistry is a little off and this girl is getting ready to lay eggs."

Taylor nodded happily. "Yeah, I ordered them to do that so-"

"I'm sorry, what? You controlled its biology to a degree?" Amy started touching different insects and spiders. "Wow, now that I'm looking at it you are doing it to others. Like these little beetles, you've done something to make them strong enough to spin the roll."

"I- didn't do it on purpose? I just told them to pull harder or make the best, most even silk with their spinnerets. Is that bad?" she asked.

"It's not normal, but not bad either. You are making them super bugs, but they are only better bugs. They aren't engineered or tinkered or anything," the bio-striker explained.

"That's useful to know. I can pretty much force them to do anything that a bug can do with perfect control." Taylor sighed. "I wish I had some Darwin Bark spiders. They're more deadly, but their silk is the strongest in the world. It's a little bit hard to work around how stretchy spider silk is, which is why I'm having the spiders pre-stretch it."

"Hmm." Amy touched another black widow for a second. "You are doing something to make the silk it produces be less stretchy and tougher, too. That's really interesting, it's like a minor version of my power as part of your master ability."

Taylor frowned as she thought and realized that she did not heal, not in any meaningful ways. "So you use your power to heal, but it can do more?"

The other girl paled as she realized her glibness. "Um, yes. Sorta. I mean, I kind of manually put everything back together and remove scarring."

"You can make changes, too? That's really neat?" Taylor said as pieces of a puzzle snapped together.

"Neat?" Amy squeaked out.

Taylor nodded and then grinned. "I bet you could do cosmetic surgery, too."

"Well, yeah. I help keep my family as fit as possible, too." She had to keep Vicky's skin soft and smooth, with no blemishes. And help keep her from getting a potbelly.

Taylor's cell phone buzzed. She pulled it out and frowned. "Dad's going to be late, so he said to make something to eat for myself." She tried to hide how unhappy that made her. At least he texted her this time.

Amy studied her for a moment. "Would you like to come over to our house and eat?"

She blinked at that and then nodded slowly. "Let me tell Dad." Her fingers started to type the text message to her father.

* * *

"It's nice to see you again," Mark said as everyone finished sitting down at the dinner table an hour later.

"So you started at Arcadia?" Carol asked in curiosity.

"Yeah, it's very nice," Taylor replied politely as she scooped up some corn to put on her plate.

Amy just sat quietly as she filled her plate. Without Vicky here, she really did not push to be part of any conversation.

Buzz-buzzing sounded.

"Odd, Jeff knows better to interrupt me during supper time," Carol said as she grabbed her cell phone to answer it. Her eyebrows shot up. "Mark, can you turn on the TV?"

Amy blinked at Carol's unexpected request. It was almost holy dictate that the TV stayed off during suppertime, barring the Olympics.

"-charges being brought to the board of directors for three hospitals and the parent company, Medhall. The Mayor's office and the Governor's office both had no comment and stated they were not aware of any criminal charges. In related news, the law firm of Edward, Dallon and Rosenberg have filed a class action lawsuit against Medhall and their affiliated hospitals on behalf of the patients that they assert were illegally charged for healthcare they did not receive," the anchor said. A graphic of Medhall's corporate logo over a photo of Brockton Bay General Hospital filled the screen behind the talking head.

The male co-anchor picked up at this point. "Calls to Medhall's CEO and owner, Maxwell Anders have not been returned. We will be watching this developing story as it continues," he explained.

"In other news-"

Mark hit the mute button with a smile on his face.

Taylor blinked as Carol Dallon did a fist pump in her seat.

"Yes!"

Amy chuckled at her adoptive mother's antics. She rarely showed this side of herself.

Carol turned to the two girls. "And it's because of both of you talking that we got this. So very good work, girls."

They both blushed in turn and went back to eating. The rest of the supper stayed quiet, with only polite conversation about safe topics.

"So, I guess we can go up to my room?" Amy asked in an uncomfortable looking way.

"Um, sure." Taylor followed her up the stairs and into a fairly typical girl's room. She looked at some shelves to look at the titles of the books. "You really do like to read."

Amy nodded as she sat down on her bed. "I try to always have a book, even when I was going to the hospital. Sometimes it isn't too busy. Carol gets annoyed if I pull it out in public when I'm in costume." Amy made an annoyed face. "Even just sitting around waiting for New Wave picture shoots."

"Oh, that's right. You guys even have your own merchandise and everything. Is that something I'll need to look at doing?" Taylor asked. She looked moderately curious.

"Yeah. Not many people want Panacea stuff though. It's all Laserdream and Glory Girl for most girls and Shielder for the boys. You should have your dad talk to Auntie about how to manage a celebrity hero," she explained as she nodded her head to a song she had stuck in her head.

"I'm not a hero yet. I've got to finish my costume first, then look to go patrol or something. I should get you and Vicky to go with me for the first few times," Taylor said as she started to think her heroic life-choice through. Panacea needed a costume change if she wanted to be popular, she realized.

"I guess. Vicky will be all over that and make sure we're in an area that's mostly safe." Amy kicked her legs to burn off a little bit of energy. "No cape fights, if we can help it."

"I've been running in the mornings, just up and down the gated area, to get into shape. I figure being able to, eh, run away is important." Taylor gave her a sheepish grin and shrug as she sat on the bed next to Amy.

Amy opened her mouth to agree, then stopped. "I should do that, too. It's not like I can just fix my body up."

Taylor nodded as that confirmed her thought. "I was pretty sure when you gave me a feedback headache through a spider."

"It's just easier to say it is and less threatening. I put Shadow Stalker to sleep," the bio-striker said as she rubbed her mostly healed jaw.

"Well, I appreciate you can make improvements." Taylor blinked. "Oh, you offered to fix my eyes, didn't you?"

Amy nodded. "I did."

The other girl smiled. "You always have my permission to heal me, you know."

The healer nodded as she reached over and put her hand on top of Taylor's. Everything went a bit fuzzy in Taylor's vision until she pulled off her glasses.

"There you go." Amy frowned suddenly. "What did you mean about improvements?"

"Well, my skin at least. Maybe my hair? I think you, um, might have helped my bust a little bit? My bras have started to to be too tight-"

"What?" Amy turned her vision in to study her genetics. There, small changes that she didn't remember doing. "Oh, god. Oh, god."

"Amy! Calm down! It was improvements and I don't mind," Taylor said as she put her other hand on top of Amy's hand on top of hers.

"But I didn't mean to-"

"That means it was a nice accident. Having powers doesn't make you perfect in using them." Taylor snorted at that. "I could only wish, otherwise I wouldn't have to redo making my outfit for the third time already. Or lose half my black widows when they started eating each other."

"I mutilated you!" Amy said even as she started to hyperventilate.

"Amy! AMY! Stop! You did not hurt me."

"I could have," she replied in a soft, hurt tone.

"It's superpowers. You could probably turn me into a puddle. But you are a good person and wouldn't do that. I don't know why you change me so my hair started coming in platinum blonde-"

"I shouldn't have healed you while I was on pain medication," Amy choked out. "I ruined everything." She should give herself up to the PRT and let them put her away where she couldn't hurt anyone. Or maybe run away-

"And if you hadn't accidentally done that, I wouldn't have learned that my mother wanted to try this. So you didn't hurt me. You made a mistake, now you know what to not do. And if you really wanted to, I bet you could undo the changes to my hair in moments."

"Well, yes. I still shouldn't have lost control," she replied in a stubborn tone.

"Amy, why do you think that you can't make any mistakes?" Taylor asked.

"Because a mistake could have ruined your life. I mean, what if I had done this to someone at the hospital?"

"After you saved their life? You might have had to go back and change it back. No one is perfect, Amy. Not you, not me and certainly not any other hero." Taylor snorted in laughter. "Didn't your sister accidentally hit a large traffic light during that car chase a month ago?"

"Carol was so mad at that. But all it takes is a momentary lapse and suddenly I've given you cancer instead of blonde hair. Or worse."

"And you just showed you are a good person because you are worried about it, but people make mistakes. You just need to make sure that you own up to it and fix it, right? Isn't that what New Wave is about?" Taylor asked her friend.

Amy opened her mouth, then closed it as she thought about it. "It can't be that easy."

"It sounds really hard." Taylor leaned over as she freed her hand and gave her a tight side hug. "You are the nicest person I know. You didn't think of anything but helping the poor girl that got knocked down in front of you guys. So that makes you my hero."

Amy blinked and then blushed. "But-" Tears started to stream down her cheeks.

"But nothing."

They stayed like that for fifteen minutes.

"Thank you, Taylor. I- I need to think about this."

"See you at school tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I think we have PE together." Amy shuddered a little bit.

* * *

Max Anders sat behind his imposing, solid oak desk with the computer sitting ready as email after email kept arriving with annoying regularity. The sky lay behind him from the ceiling to floor window, almost fully dark. At a knock on his door, he called out, "Who is it?"

Jessica opened the door. "James is here, Max."

"Let him in. Bring your sister and let's try to see what we have to do to fix this," Max ordered.

James Fleischer walked in and nodded to his boss. "Maxwell." He flopped onto his favorite of the two leather chairs in front of the desk. "God, what I wouldn't wish for the day to be over already."

"You are not the only one," Max said as Jessica and Nessa walked in, locking the door behind them. "How did this happen? And how the hell did we not get warning?"

"This has Brandish's fingerprint all over it. She's been a high profile lawyer long enough to have her own, trusted contacts at the District Attorney's office. They were the ones that did the investigation and our friend Douglas Emmerson in the DA's office was not brought in until after the police started their raids at the hospitals. Right now, they don't have anything solid, but it looks like they will get it." James sighed as he ran his hands through his brown hair. "No one had changed the way we marked things since we decided to use Panacea for profit."

Max stood up and went over to the hidden wet bar and poured two bourbons. He jerked his head to Jessica to let her get her and her sister a drink. "So that story about Amy Dallon being grounded from healing was a lie. I thought there was something fishy, but I figured Carol was just pissed at her getting in the middle of that Shadow Stalker thing." Oh, how he wished he could punish that monkey. But they had to play the part of civilized criminals.

"That might have been our bad luck, as the Hebert girl probably talked to the Dallons about the medical costs that the school ended up paying for," the other man said.

"So how bad is it going to be, Max?" Nessa asked as she took a glass of wine from her sister.

He spun his chair around to look out the window. "Dara Hamil is our cut out here. James, I want you to visit her and make sure she's aware that talking will have certain consequences. Keep her family someplace safe and out of the public eyes. Perhaps up at the Lodge." He spun back around and smiled. "Treat them with all courtesy and be a little generous. Carrot, not the stick. If she's convicted, we'll take care of her family and get her the most lenient prison sentence we can swing."

James frowned. "This is going to impact our tithe."

"We have always paid fairly and more than is owed. Any business enterprise has setbacks. We just have to overcome it or turn it to our advantage." Max took a long sip and savored the burn of the alcohol down his throat. "If Hebert was behind this, I want our people to be on the watch for her heroic debut." He smiled a very nasty smile indeed. "We won't kill the kike, of course. But that doesn't mean we can't hurt her. And it will hurt that bastard of a father of hers as well. The Dockworkers Union has been an annoying thorn since my father's day."

His subordinate nodded. "Well, I've got things to do before I can call family tonight."

"After this, you should take a few days off to spend with them," Max said. "Later, James."

James left the room, letting the door lock behind him.

Max turned to his two bodyguards. "How are you two up for a distraction tonight before we go to the rally?"

Both girls giggle as they finished up their drinks.

"At the same time?" Jessica asked.

"I feel the need to work off some frustration."


	6. Costume Hits

Coil closed the timeline where he had his mercenaries attack a data backup site of the PRT.

He leaned forward at his desk as he eyed the various reports that he had access to via his civilian identity. Still no information on how Armsmaster had tracked him back to his base after his kidnapping attempt on the bug girl. The thought that the girl somehow lay behind the failure had to be considered, rather than something the hero did. Coil had no desire for the entire local Protectorate, Wards and New Wave to show up and crush his base again.

But how? His _kept_ choice ended up with problems so it ended up being a non-binary situation. At least his men got Stanley Wentworth. He would never betray anyone again.

Coil shook his head and then made a call. And then split on a choice.

Half an hour later Tattletale walked into his office.

"We need to solve a problem. How could the Bug Girl attempt to get help if I were to bring her to this location?" he demanded.

She hid her surprise as her power whispered about his attempt. "Hmm. Her power has a longer range and she has more control than you would expect." The girl used her bugs to have the cops call the Protectorate directly which happened to bypass his mole in the PRT dispatch. "She could spell out words that she used to call in the cops."

That simple? "What is her range?"

"Six or seven hundred feet," Tattletale fibbed, underselling the girl's range by about thirty percent. Enough to be taken as a mistake when verified."

"You mentioned she has better control than I expected. Explain," Coil ordered in his flat, unfriendly way as the _other_ Tattletale spilled the truth as thumb screws applied wounds to all of her fingers and thumbs.

Tattletale hid her start in surprise. He knew that she lied already? "Just that. She can control any bugs within her range. Might even be able to use them to sense things around. She can't hear or see through them, thank goodness." Her power suggested that the bug girl's power had a steep learning curve to get the most out of it.

Coil nodded as the flip-choice Tattletale confirmed that. "That would make her hard to kidnap. How would you entice her to join the Undersiders?"

"Before her friendship with New Wave, it would have been easy. Just be a good friend and escalate the crimes we would involve her in. Start off with petty assault and vandalism against the Merchants, Empire or ABB. Now we would have to drive a wedge between her and the younger members of New Wave." A twinge of pain stabbed her temples. "That could backfire if we aren't careful."

"Keep poking at the idea. I'll look at other means to neutralize her if need be," he replied. "You can leave."

Sniping the girl sounded like the simplest option, but carried the risk of severe escalation. Coil thought over different options.

He _would_ solve the issue.

But for now, he needed to work on moving his pawns into place. The new Case 53 out beyond the railroad yard might work out just perfectly for that.

* * *

Taylor stepped off the bus and waved to Vicky and Amy at the front door as a light snow fell from the sky. Eric stood next to them, shaking his head.

"-mom is starting to figure it out," the boy explained to his cousins.

"Not here, Eric. Hi, Taylor! I am still just so jealous of your hair," Vicky said to their new friend.

"Hi guys! Are you feeling better, Amy?" Taylor asked her friend.

Amy smiled. "A bit. I still need more time, but I can almost believe what you said."

Taylor stepped up and just hugged her for a long second. "Take as long as you want."

The other girl blushed and looked away. "Come on, guys. It's time for school.

* * *

"So you should have seen the two of us huffing and puffing and gasping for air," Taylor explained at the lunch table as Vicky and her boyfriend Dean sat down.

"You don't have to retell it again," Amy complained as she tried to stop her her blush of embarassment by ducking her face to let her hair hide her face a bit as she took a scoop of her 'meatloaf'.

"Vicky should join us on our morning run," Taylor said. She took a bite of her so-so hamburger.

"What?" Vicky now stared at her suspiciously.

Taylor looked over at Amy, then to Vicky. "Why wouldn't you want exercise? Don't want to become flabby. Or what happens if you run into someone that can suppress your powers like that monster in the Slaughterhouse 9? Hatchet Head?"

"Hatchet Face," Amy corrected absently as she thought about it. "She has a point Vicky. I mean, the _master_ of insects that can attack from blocks away is exercising so she can run the hell away in case someone can ignore her bugs." She emphasized the issue by pointing at her sister with her piece of pizza.

"It's a good idea. I would hate for my girlfriend to lose because she couldn't run as fast as her sister or friend," Dean said with a smirk on his face.

"But- Ugh, sweaty!" Vicky sighed dramatically. "I guess." She had been slacking on her sports and exercise.

"So you can just fly over the neighbor's houses and meet me out front of my place, right?" Taylor said.

"Because you have to jog in the secured street area?" Amy asked.

"Well, by myself. I think if I'm with both of you, we can go outside and then run back. The Protectorate thinks that the gangs would want to press gang me if given a chance. And I don't have at least two adult heroes in the house." Taylor gave them a shrug.

The rest of lunch passed by quickly, while the rest of school always seemed to crawl by.

Taylor took her school bus to her new home even as she kept track of her PRT shadow. A woman and man in a minivan. The scent of containment foam came across distinctly to her bugs. A few grenades and even one of those backpack sprayers. Both agents came armed with pistols, with heavier guns lock in a secure trunk with the foam sprayer.

She hopped off the bus and jogged past Charlie, who gave her a nod. Taylor felt she got a little exercise, but not really enough. Getting into her house still annoyed her with the advanced alarm system and everything. She snacked on some carrot sticks and an apple as she headed down to her workshop.

"Well, guys," she said to her bug minions, "it's time to get back to work on my costume." She opened up the cover to the individual containers for her black widows.

She wrapped her legs in plastic wrap and then pulled on the boots of her outfit over her feet and lower legs. The spiders swarmed over her legs even as she pulled out her homework and started to read.

* * *

On Friday at lunch, the teens talked over what plans they had for the weekend.

Dean shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "Sorry, I really can't do anything tonight. Dad's being strict."

Victoria just pouted. "And these two slave drivers are making me jog every morning so I can't be out too late. Totally unfair."

Amy gave her a deadpan look. "Just remember, 'Hatchet Face is behind you' and I'm sure you'll have all the motivation you need."

Dean and Taylor laughed.

The 'new' blonde looked over to her friend. "Say, Amy? I have something pretty neat to show you when I get home."

"I can stop on the way there. Is it all right if Vicky comes along?" she asked.

"Sure, if she can handle creepy crawlies," Taylor said. She shrugged in indifference.

Vicky shuddered, but nodded. "Sure, I guess."

After school, Taylor realized that everything now felt normal again. Riding a school bus, studying and friends to hang out with again really helped her state of mind, she decided.

"So have you started to go back to healing at times?" Taylor asked.

Amy gave a grunt of displeasure. "Yeah, but I have to document everything a lot more. But New Wave is earning a lot more as a direct payment so that nothing 'off the books' happens again."

Vicky grinned as she turned away from Dean. "And since it has a cost, they only let her heal the most critical now. So no more overworking herself to death. And she gets a better stipend from New Wave."

"Which is nice, I guess," Amy grudgingly admitted. At least Vicky took her patrolling more often.

All three girls wore their white, logoed T-shirts. Amazingly enough, most people even now ignored it.

"So you are planning on being a hero?" Dean asked casually, then took a bite of one of his fries.

"I need my outfit first. I'm making better progress, now. I can't imagine how I thought I'd have enough time without letting my dad learn about me being a parahuman." She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small square piece of cloth. "This is a sample." She handed it to Amy first.

The brunette started to pull it to test the toughness. It stretched only a little bit. "Thicker than I expected. How many layers?"

"Ten to fifteen? Seems to be mostly knife proof." Taylor grimaced at a thought. "I don't know how to color it right. I don't want to ruin a whole outfit."

"Silk, right? That could be tricky," Vicky said as she accepted the sample to tug on it herself. She actually blinked in surprise as it only stretched a bit more. "Wow, that is tough."

Dean snickered at that. "Have you checked online or at some of the fabric or craft stores? They might know a way or someone that can bleach or color that."

"I know you can't use chlorine bleach," Vicky mused as she stole a glance at Dean and blushed.

"Or, you know, just remember how to use a smartphone," Amy said in a very snarky tone as she ignored the pang in her heart. "Hydrogen peroxide might work." She held up her smartphone to show a how-to article.

"Um, right. We keep putting off getting a better computer. I'll have to talk to my dad about that," Taylor noted and then finished off her pizza.

"So, did you actually study for your Geometry test, Vicky?" her sister asked.

"Yes," she said quickly.

"Yeah, right," Amy said in a drawl.

"Well, I'll study some tonight while you guys play with _bugs_." Vicky shivered at that.

* * *

Later that afternoon at the new Hebert house, Vicky looked around the expanded workshop. "You made even more places to keep spiders?"

"Honeycomb chambers in the cans," Taylor explained. She lifted the 'lid' that had a porous foam to seal in the black widows. "Hmm. Two of them got out."

Vicky floated off the ground.

"Jeez, Vicky. You _know_ she controls all the bugs around her _and_ you are invulnerable. If you are going to get bitten, it's because you did something to deserve it," Amy said with a small smirk.

"I'm missing ten of them. Dang it. Stupid territorial spiders. Yeah, there are their bodies." Taylor sighed in a theatrical way.

"How does your dad live here without freaking out?" the floating girl asked.

"Um, I don't think he is not freaking out. So, Amy? I have a present for you? It's more of a prototype, but I want you to try it on?" Taylor held up a slightly lopsided grayish-pale-yellow T-shirt.

"A spider-silk T-shirt? Why?" Amy asked while her brows furrowed downward.

"I heard you mention going on patrol with Glory Girl and didn't want you to get seriously hurt. You can't heal yourself, right?"

Amy nodded as she saw the direction of the conversation. "Right."

"So some armor for you is good in case you run into one of the many psychos in the city. Like Oni Lee? He might not kill you, but I bet he'd have no compunction about cutting you up badly. I want to make some armor for all of New Wave. You guys have been pretty good to me," Taylor explained even as she blushed at the end.

Vicky walked over and picked it up. "Oh, that part laces up? That would work." She turned and tossed it to Amy. "Come on, try it on!"

"But I'm not a combatant. I can't even do anything if they wear a full costume or armor," she protested.

Taylor reached for something on the table. "Well, if someone takes my bugs away, I'm going to have a knife and this extendable baton. Plus some pepper spray, some tough plastic ties-"

"-Ooh! You can use some of your spider silk for rope to tie up brutes!" Vicky exclaimed as the thought occurred to her.

"-silk rope, a small first aid kit for when you aren't around, a place for my phone. Etc, etc." She gave Amy a shrug.

"Wow, I'm kind of an idiot," Amy muttered to herself. "We'll have to go to that cop store some time and buy us some equipment with my new money."

"Probably should get you a slightly more form fitting robe, too," Vicky muttered. "I can't see you running away in that huge thing you have right now that you hide in."

"I do not hide in it," she countered.

"Amy, your outfit is the only one of the New Wave outfits that covers _the face_."

Taylor fidgeted for a long moment, then gave her a brief side hug with one arm. "I know about hiding. She's not wrong."

Amy flushed, though with anger or attraction she would be hard pressed to answer. "Oh, okay. I'll talk to Auntie about it."

"Aunt Sarah is going to be thrilled if you do make outfits for everyone, you know. Don't noise it around, but a big enough attack and my shield can drop and I can take a big hit. Sort of like Uncle Neil's electromagnetic forefield can be overwhelmed." She turned back to her sister. "Come on, try it on already."

"But-"

"No buts!"

"Fine." She tried to pull it on, only to find it catching and pulling on her white T-shirt. She then turned around and pulled off her T-shirt even as she blushed deeply. Why did she decide to not wear a bra today? With a lot of wiggling, she finally managed to pull on the off-color T-shirt and then tied up the front part like an ancient style tunic. She turned back around. "See?"

Taylor stood up as her own blush started to fade finally. "I'm going to have to use a really sturdy zipper on the back of my body suit. I can remake this one so it has one too, if you like?" She started to tug on it. "Should I try to build in support so you don't need a bra?"

"Um, maybe?"

"So how long is this going to take?" the natural blonde asked.

"Weeks! I can only make the spiders weave for a few hours before they need to eat and then process everything to make more drag webbing." Taylor almost wilted at that. She wanted to show she could be a hero now! Or at least _soon_.

"If that wasn't a problem?" Amy asked curiously.

"Umm, maybe three or four hours of intense work? And I could do outfits for all of New Wave in just a week or two!" Hope spawned within Taylor's growing bosom.

"No way? You are going to use your healing for that? But what about-?" Vicky asked as she cut herself off as she looked between the two girls.

"She knows that my power is more than healing. Her power does a little bit of biomanipulation itself."

"Huh. Powers are weird." Vicky looked intrigued though.

Taylor summoned more insects in the background to feed her black widow and started to get them read even as she started to get ready. "Um..."

Amy looked up from where she had pulled out her homework. "Something up?"

"No, I just have to strip down if I want to get it to fit right." She then shucked her shoes, socks and jeans to start wrapping her legs in a layer of plastic. Lastly she pulled on the two leggings that stopped just before her knees.

"Wish I had the length of your legs," Vicky said in a wistful tone.

Taylor tried to smile, but it did not look quite real. _Yeah, right_. "I tried to make an armor plate out of chitin and webbing, too. Not sure how tough it is though." Dad mentioned that he might have a way to test it out.

"Okay, hand over your spiders," Amy said as she held out her hand on the table. Spiders swarmed up the table and onto her hand almost immediately. She started to push their biology a bit, tweaking things so they could work longer and better. Even as she did that, she tried to study the strange signals that Taylor's power used even as she toned down the black widows' aggressiveness.

"And that's my cue to start homework," Vicky said as she quickly turned so she did not have to watch.

* * *

Danny nodded to the security guard at the gate. Well, undercover PRT trooper if he understood things rightly. Not that he got much information from the neighbors. Half the houses here seemed unoccupied or their owners rarely visited. He suspected that one or two might be important people within the PRT or even potentially some of the Protectorate heroes.

But not his worry. The PRT stood behind their promise in helping keep him and his daughter secure at home. His newer car pulled into the garage and he hopped out to quickly close the door and reset the alarm there. Groceries got loaded into the fridge and pantry and then he went and knocked on the basement door.

"Taylor?"

"Down here, Dad! With Amy and Vicky," she called out loudly.

Danny opened the door and walked downstairs to see the odd sight of his daughter wearing a yellowish off-white bodysuit that looked too form fitting for his liking. "Well, I see you have been productive," he said with a pang.

"Yeah, with Amy's help, I can get finished with my outfit. Then I can make some more outfits for Amy and Vicky. And you, too, of course." She meant to make him one, really. It just kind of slipped her mind.

"I've got the bullet proof vest that Armsmaster sent over. And I finished my course on my concealed weapon permit. That's why I'm a little bit late. I was at the shooting range and Todd let me take a few shots at your armor." Danny reached into his jacket's pocket and pulled out a baggy. "It stood up to light rifle fire, but it cracked under an armor piercing rifle round."

"That's still impressive. Those usually go right through bullet proof armor," Vicky said with wide eyes, mirrored by the other two girl.

Taylor kept the spiders at the wide collar of her outfit working. "I'm glad to hear that. I wonder if Amy and I could earn some extra money making bullet proof cloth for the PRT?"

"I don't see why not. We can put it towards your college fund."

"Only if you mean 'buy herself a college' fund," Amy said with a smirk. "Oh, were you serious about cleaning out the bugs at the hospitals?"

"Sure, I guess. Will I have to do a contract like you did? How much is that worth?" Taylor asked.

"Um, well you can only charge minimum wages for all the work you do. I'd try to get a general quote on how many man hours it would take a regular company to spray for bugs," Amy explained with her new knowledge of Parahuman financial law.

"And what their minimum hiring wage for an exterminator," Danny said as he remembered something from the newspaper last week. "Not the state or federal minimum wage."

"Pretty good progress, right Dad?" Taylor said.

"Yes. Yes it is." Danny's throat tightened in anguish.

* * *

Taylor ran her hand across the cream colored bodysuit. Her mask lay next to it with it's faceted gold goggles. After she stripped down, she pulled on the snug outfit and zipped up the small and expensive zipper that fitted her into the suit. She added the small bits of armor that she already planned to expand. The back armor carried her crime fighting equipment and areas for bugs to keep them warm.

She carefully pulled her hair through the special, overlapping hole in the back of the mask. You could technically grab her hair, a no-no for combat, but she planned to be out of hand to hand range if at all possible. Another tug under the hair pulled the mask snug around her neck and her shoulders. Taylor then pulled the back seam zipper on her outfit's body and then the little flap at the top covered and held the zipper up to the topmost position.

Weaver then stretched and reached to get the feel for wearing the whole costume. She frowned at herself in the body length mirror against the wall of her shop. Vicky was not wrong, she still looked a bit edgy. She would have looked positively villainous in dark gray or black. She reached up to touch the painted, green beetle on his small chestplate. _Her_ symbol.

"Taylor, the girls are here," Danny called down the stairs into the basement.

"Coming!" she shouted as she put on her utility belt. Vicky gifted the white belt to her and it seemed to fit her costume's theme. She thumped her way up the stairs like the young teen she was. "Vicky! Hey, Amy!"

"Uhn ah! Codenames when we are in costume," the other blonde said as she wagged a finger at their new friend.

Panacea snorted softly in amusement. Vicky would be the first one to forget that rule, she wagered with herself.

"So how are you going to carry us to the hospital?" Weaver asked as she put herself in the right mindset.

"I need you two to hold your forearms here and put that over onto the back of my shoulders there. Then I hug both of you under your arms and with your free hands, hold onto my wrists," Vicky explained.

"This seems awkward," the newer hero said.

"Lady Photon figured it out and taught the flyers in our family," Panacea explained. "The Wards and Protectorate have a similar move."

"See you later, Mr. Hebert! We'll be back before midnight!" Glory Girl called out.

"Keep yourself safe and for god's sake, don't try to take on a villain cape on your fist night out," Danny called out even as his fists clenched at his side.

With that, she gently lifted off the ground and slowly accelerated up to about half speed. "You guys doing okay?"

"Yeah," Panacea said with little enthusiasm. "Weaver, pull your legs together like you are diving into the water. It helps keep you stable."

"Thanks," she replied.


	7. A First Night

"Twenty minutes," Glory Girl said as she sat in the waiting room of Brockton Bay General Hospital.

"You've said that three times already," Weaver said in acerbic tartness even if her mask made her look emotionless and slightly creepy.

"You removed all of the bugs from an entire hospital in less than half hour. And then explained where all the nasty messes that they had made were. And made $10,000, the minimum a pest control company would charge." She glared at the younger girl.

"Why are we waiting?" Weaver asked the other girl as she shifted in her seat. The off-white color of her outfit felt vulnerable and off, for some reason.

"Erik was hanging out with his friend, which I totally think is his boyfriend and Crystal's last class is just ending," she replied.

"I'm not made of glass, you know." Weaver glared at her, to no effect. The older girl seemed immune or oblivious. Immune seemed more likely.

"We are all normal under the forcefields," Glory Girl reminded her tartly.

"Which is why Amy and I are going to make spider-silk outfits for all of you." She narrowed her eyes behind her gold filmed goggles. "Are you trying to do an end run around your parents on the New Wave thing?"

"Hmm." Glory Girl tilted her head at her perceptiveness. "This is our way of showing Mom our displeasure with not even being allowed to have any word about a new member who is _our_ age. Crystal's madder than I am."

"Because she is an adult going to college and they still didn't let her vote."

"And she would have tied it for you to join, which means that Dad would have had to decide and vote or they would have had to let the three of us 'kids' vote."

"So you are just acting like I've joined even if they won't allow me in?" Weaver asked as she thought it out somore.

 _"Exactly_. And to the public, it will look like you joined. So Auntie Sarah or Mom will have to do a press release or ignore it. And if they talk about it, there will be pushback. Especially about why New Wave isn't allowing another unmasked that is a hero and friends with their kids join the team."

"Which would blow up in their faces. So they are going to be checkmated," Panacea said with a smug tone as she walked up behind them.

"I-" Weaver paused to gather her thoughts. "I'm not sure how I feel about being used like that."

"Oh shit! I'm not trying to use you. I'm doing this _for_ you. I just didn't want you catching flack or being accused of manipulating us, Taylor," Glory Girl said as she looked a bit panicked.

"Me manipulate you?" Weaver just stared at her.

"We know you aren't doing anything like that." Glory Girl shared a quick look with her sister. "You probably wouldn't even think of it after what those witches did to you at Winslow."

"Oh." She looked away. "Um, I need to think about this."

"Did you want to put off your first patrol?" Panacea asked in a tone that showed her worry.

"No. No, I do want to patrol. And now that I think of it, I do want to be on your team," Weaver replied as she jerkily nodded her head.

"Even if that's- No, that's for after we have our confrontation about New Wave," Glory Girl replied. She pulled her phone out of the hidden pocket on the back of her outfit under the cape. "They are on their way."

"You guys will be scouting in the air, like normal?" Panacea asked.

"You got it!" She gave them both a thumbs up.

* * *

Weaver and Panacea walked down one of the smaller roads near the Boardwalk.

"Empire gang tags," the more experienced hero said as she pointed out the stylized red and black painted 88 on the corner of the road in an alleyway.

"And no one removes them?" she replied in question.

"It would be a lot of work and money." Panacea shrugged.

A sluggish swarm flew out of her small armored plate on her back. They buzzed and swarmed over the icey, painted brick.

She leaned over to inspect their work. "Hmm." Too cold right now, so she moved back onto the patrol path. She looked around as different people waved to Panacea or called out a soft greeting.

 _"Skinheads down the alley, but not doing anything illegal,"_ Glory Girl's voice came across their phone's wireless earpieces.

"The Empire must just want to watch us for now," Panacea said, though her voice carried a hint of worry.

The next half an hour (and first half of their patrol) went by without any incidents other than Panacea helping a couple of homeless families with their health issues.

"You are probably saving their lives," Weaver said after the last group wandered back to their alleyway.

"What?" Panacea asked in a startled voice.

"This is making it so they can deal with the colder nights if they can't get into a shelter. You fixed things like parasites and diseases, right?"

The other girl nodded.

"I can't remember how many people get hospitalized or die, but it's higher than it was thirty years ago. And now it's considered to be 'normal'. Which is sad."

"Yeah." Panacea hunched her shoulders inward again.

Under her mask, Taylor frowned at her response. "Cold?"

"You'd think so, but no. I'm wearing my full winter coat under here. _Someone_ hates wearing her full coat as it ruins her look." You could hear the smirk in her voice.

The flyer's winter outfits look much like thicker and padded regular costumes, except Glory Girl who had to put on some pants (and thermal underwear) so she did not freeze. Even so, they ended up being chilled due to wind and the dropping temperature.

"Miss? Can you help my buddy? I think he got jumped by some Merchants earlier for being in the wrong neighborhood," a thin young man in a big winter coat asked. He pointed out a guy leaning up against the wall.

"Sure." Panacea tapped her bluetooth earbud. "Got an injured guy here."

 _"I've got you in sight,"_ Shielder called out from overhead and down the street. In the winter sky, you could not see him beyond fifty feet. And he was sixty feet up.

Weaver watched her walk up to the beefy guy with a knit beanie hat and a puffy winter coat.

Panacea pulled off her woolen glove and set it on his cheek in a clinical matter. Under her hood/scarf, she frowned at the bruising. Hamming it up a little?

Weaver kept an eye on the whole area as a training exercise. Even so, the bald man with a baseball bat _still_ nearly surprised her when he dashed out from a small group of men and women walking down the sidewalk on her side of the street.

She barely moved her leg so that the baseball bat hit her thigh, not her knee. Pain still exploded, but her leg managed to hold her weight. He pulled back for another swing when bugs exploded out of her little armored pack at latched onto his face.

"I'm being attacked," Weaver shouted out in pain as she reached for her extendable baton.

"Get 'em off! Get 'em off!" he shouted as he swatted at the bugs on his face.

With a schlackt sound, Weaver slammed the baton on his wrist to force him to drop his baseball bat. He screamed in pain and took off towards an alley. Even in pain and fear, he knocked boxes and garbage bags to break his trail and trip up pursuers.

Weaver gathered all the insects in the area to hem him in with a wall of flying insects.

"Shit! Shit! Going to shit!" the thug bemoaned as he looked for an escape route.

Glory Girl slammed to the ground in front of him with a three point landing (perfectly!) and then stood up. "I'd give up if I were you," she ordered.

Laserdream zoomed in with a quiet woosh. "I really would," she said as energy appeared in her palms.

He looked around frantically for an exit when Weaver limped around the corner at a fast pace, Panacea right behind her. She held up a high tech looking pistol and pulled the trigger. With a phoot, it shot a two pronged blunt projectile trailed by a wire that hit the meaty portion of his thigh. A buzz sounded and he flopped to the ground in a twitching mess.

"Got you," Weaver said. Thanks for making me take the taser, Dad.

"I'm dialing for the police," Shielder called out as he hover and texted... right into a wall. With a squawk, he floundered and then landed heavily in a pile of trash.

Weaver stared at him in shock as the two oldest girls slapped their foreheads.

"Eric. We talked about this. No showboating with your flight until you get it working better," his sister said in an aggravated tone.

"Sorry," he said as he scrambled to his feet. Then he started to dig around for his phone in the trash.

Waver leaned against the wall as she started to shiver. "He just attacked me out of nowhere. If I hadn't been watching with my insects-"

"You're all right. You will be alright," Panacea said as she patted Weaver on her shoulder.

"Hurts like a bitch," she complained. "He tried to smash my knee."

"Kind of stupid of him. I mean you are friends with Panacea and she could fix that in minutes," Laserdream said with narrow eyes as she studied the E88 thug. "This was a message."

"They botched it. Sounds like they wanted to scare me away," Weaver said as she got her shakes under control.

"Ames! Tay! Go stand over there and be photogenic!" Glory Girl called out as she held up her phone to take a picture. Behind her, Shielder talked on the phone with the police.

* * *

"What is this?" Carol Dallon asked as she slapped the newspaper down on the kitchen table the next morning.

Mark looked over at his wife in bleary confusion. He wanted to go back to bed and not be part of this interrogation.

"Looks like Weaver's hero debut where she caught the Empire thug trying to scare her off." Vicky very carefully did not mention the article's title.

"New Wave's newest member attacked by the Empire. That's what this says. Now explain. Weaver is _not_ a member of New Wave. We told you that," their mother stated in a very flat and unfriendly way.

"No, two of the five adult members of New Wave decided that without asking Crystal nor your nearly adult kids," Vicky shot back. She took a quick glance of her sister.

Amy flinched and hunched her shoulders harder. Then she sat up a little more straight. "It's the right thing to do."

Carol looked incredulously at both of the girl. "Do you realize what you have done?"

"Not left a publicly known hero out to dry?" Vicky said in her snarkiest tone of voice.

"She's... she showed that heroes need public accountability. Shadow Stalker used her secret identity to abuse Taylor and got away with it because of her secret identity. Not letting her join-" Amy paused here as she thought. "It betrays what New Wave is supposed to be."

The older hero opened her mouth. And then closed it to think over the matter. She gave them a very muleish look. "I am not happy and the adults of New Wave are going to have a meeting about it."

"Are you going to remember Crystal this time?" Vicky countered.

Carol _glared_ at her daughter. "I don't need you telling me how to run New Wave. You are grounded-"

"WHAT!?"

"Grounded until that meeting." She looked over at Amy a second later. "Both of you. And no stringing Taylor along with any promises."

"That isn't how it happened. She actually got mad because she thought we were manipulating her."

Amy winced, as Vicky had turned on her 'stubborn mode'.

Her mother looked terribly angry. "Room! NOW! Both of you!"

* * *

Mark popped the tab of a beer as he sat down next to Neil in his 'super-heavy' chair in the Pelham dining room.

Carol looked over at her sister. "So we're ready to start?"

Her sister looked back and thought for a long second. "Actually, we're not. Neil, how long until Crystal gets here?"

"Crystal? I- I guess," she replied. The younger sister looked concerned and upset.

"Don't be like that, Carol. Crystal was pretty upset at being excluded from our last meeting," Neil said as he studied the high strung mother.

"It didn't occur to me, sorry. It was our first important meeting since she turned 18."

The Pelham's front door opened to admit their oldest kid. "I got here as fast as I could." She looked between the parents. "This is about Taylor, isn't it?"

"You know it is-"

"Carol, please. Yes, Crystal, it is." Sarah looked over the other five. "And this also goes over out last meeting, where we voted two against, one for and one abstaining to let Taylor join New Wave. And one that we forgot to ask for her vote." Sarah sent a sharp look at her sister.

"You forgot, too," she shot back.

"I did and I apologized."

Crystal waved to get their attention. "And for the record I _would_ have voted against her, as I didn't know her at all. And that would have been a mistake. We should have at least tried to meet her halfway or something. Even just patrolled with her when she went out first."

"Why the change of heart, Chrissie?" Mark asked.

It's been eight years, uncle! "Because she's going to be a great hero. She prepared and made herself a bullet resistant uniform, can control every insect within _blocks_ and is a real trooper. Some E88 ganger tried to break her knee as a warning and she actually chased him down to where we had cornered him and tased his ass."

"Hmm." Neil looked pensive from his throne of heavy wood that barely fit his massive form. "That's not bad for a first night."

"Reconsidering your vote?" Carol asked as she tested the waters.

"Probably should have a proper vote again," Mark noted as he sipped his beer.

"Does anyone else second that motion?" Sarah asked as leader of New Wave.

"I do," Crystal said a little loudly.

"By a raise of hands, who thinks she should be a member?" Sarah raised her own hand again. Crystal did not surprise her, but Mark and Neil _did_.

Carol looked betrayed.

"And those against?" Sarah asked.

Everyone watched to see what the _other_ sister would do. Carol shook her head.

"I'll abstain."

"That is four for her joining, no votes against and one abstaining," Sarah said as she felt one crisis deflate, with yet another crisis coming from her sister.

"Um, I don't know how we do this, but I'd suggest in the future we actually do a vote to get to know someone that wants to join and then a vote to join. That way we just aren't flat out saying no because they are new," Crystal said as she tried to explain her idea.

"We really aren't planning on expanding New Wave, Crystal," Sarah said with a sad little smile. "This was a rather unique situation."

"Oh, and what if I have a boyfriend who's a hero that wants to join so that he can have an open relationship with me, Mom?"

"I'll need to think it over then, because that's a good point." She suddenly grinned at her daughter. "Though I think I have more to worry about that with Vicky and Eric."

Crystal bit back a counter-argument. She _was_ the one that brought it up. "Ahem. Well, I did get something intriguing from Amy after the patrol. Weaver is willing to make bullet resistant outfits for all of us."

"I didn't realize she was a Tinker," the giant in the room said in surprise.

"She makes it with spider silk. I guess Amy is helping so that she can make it faster. Even before the vote, Taylor was going to try and get that done in a week or so."

"As one of the non-bulletproof crowd, I'm all for that," Mark said and chuckled.

"Oh, Crystal? Would you let her know that we have a New Wave photo shoot at the West Upcity Mall on Saturday?"

"Dang, I nearly forgot about that."

* * *

"I have a what on Saturday?" Taylor stared in abject horror at her friends (and new team mates).


	8. The Mall Shoot

"So, what do you think?" Taylor asked her friend at the nine costumes hanging to dry from the whitewashing that they had come up with during the week.

"They do look almost exactly like our current uniforms. Well, except for my own," Amy said as she looked at the leotard and hooded mantle. Every one of the outfits had the correct hero's symbol in the right color.

Weaver's outfit still looked the most functional, though Panacea and Flash Bang's outfits now had insert plates for extra protection.

"Dad says that the new dragline webbing you made is really bullet resistant. He couldn't pierce it with even a high powered rifle he borrowed from the owner of the gun range," the taller girl said. She looked away for a second. "Do you think we have time to color my hair? While I don't mind the blonde hair, I think I want my old hair back."

"You overheard Becky, didn't you?" What would be the best way? Growing it all out again? That would put too much stress on the scalp and Taylor would need to eat several large meals. Amy's eyes lit on a short bench and one of the chemical tubs.

"Not just Becky, but yeah some people are talking about how Aryan New Wave looks most of the time. Becky's just more vocal about how we're fostering white power in a more insidious way," Taylor said as she shrugged her shoulders. She had started to figure out how to listen through her bugs. And it all came down to the quiet music room with a metronome ticking away.

Amy very much tried to ignore what that did to Taylor's body for a second. "I think I can. And instead just growing out your hair, I'm going to try and do it with a bio-wash. Can I get a few pounds of bugs here?"

"Sure." The weather continued to warm, so many more bugs lay within her range. Within about thirty seconds, 'trash' bugs arrived and flowed into the tub.

The other girl added some water with one hand, while the other slipped into the mass of bugs and water. In moments, she created a living sludge. "Dip a strand or two of hair into it, please?"

Taylor nodded. "Sure." With a quick jerk, she pulled several blonde hairs and dropped them into the greenish-blue slime. The hair cycled between colors, but soon turned a familiar black color.

"Okay. Lay on your back of the bench with your hair draped into the tub," Amy ordered with her hand still in the tub.

She followed her friends advice and only twitched a little bit when Amy put her hand on Taylor forehead. Cold wriggled up her scalp and then across her eyebrows. "Um, Amy? Could you make sure I don't get a pimple or something before tomorrow?" Tomorrow. Tomorrow!

"Sure. I reset your hair to grow out its natural color, too." Why did she feel disappointed as she studied Taylor's features? A very small nudge there removed any chance of acne and made her skin flawless. She stared for a long minute into wide, doe-eyed brown eyes.

"Amy?"

"Sorry! All done."

Taylor stood up and patted at her dry hair. "Not even wet? Huh." She walked over to the mirror attached to the back of the door that led upstairs. She smiled at seeing her long, curly black hair. Then she ran her hands through it. "Oh, wow. Very soft and silky. You should do that for your own hair."

"I can't use my power on myself, remember?" Amy rolled her eyes.

"But you didn't use your power on my hair directly because it's dead. That should apply to your own hair, right?"

Amy blinked and then slapped her forehead with one hand. "It does. And I'm a dummy. Can you get a hand mirror?"

Taylor nodded and then helped lay her down on the bench with her hair ready to drape into the tub when Amy realized she couldn't put her hand back into the slime. They switched the bench for some towels as a mass of flying insects toted in the hand mirror on strings of silk.

She then knelt down, leaned over and tilted her head so she looked off to the side where Taylor held her bug delivered mirror. A minute of work later, she pulled the slime out of her hair and shook her wavy hair.

"Oh, wow. I think Vicky might be jealous," Amy said with a grin.

"We do look like we've gone to an expensive hairdresser."

Amy grinned again at that. "How about we hang out until it's nearly time to go to bed? We can watch some movies or something." And surprise her family in the morning.

"Dad did get cable TV installed, so there should be something on."

"You'll help carry some of the outfits over to my house?" the shorter girl asked.

"No, I figure we'll call your sister to help with that. We'll just have to bag them for everyone to use tomorrow," Taylor explained.

* * *

Danny looked over at his mostly normal looking daughter sat next to him in the car's passenger seat. If you ignored the fact that her winter jacket only partly covered her Weaver outfit minus mask and armored pads. "I'm glad I had a little time to learn about these photoshoots and public appearances."

"They updated this one to be my 'official' debut as a member. So they said there might be a few more people here." Taylor's stomach churned in dreaded anticipation.

The heavy sedan turned smoothly into an empty parking spot. Moment's later, they stepped out and started to walk to the main entrance.

A security guard opened a locked door. "Mr. Hebert? Weaver? This way, please."

"Thanks," Danny replied as he held the door for his daughter.

They headed to the main office of the mall to meet with the manager, an old woman with mostly white hair.

"It's good to meet you two. The rest of the New Wave is getting their once over with makeup in George's office, so you should head back," she explained simply.

"Go on, kiddo. I'll be taking pictures and video. Just look for my blue baseball cap." He waved to his daughter as she walked off.

"Most people won't be here for at least half an hour-" the manager explained to him as Taylor walked off.

Taylor found George's office (with a paper taped to it with New Wave on it) and knocked.

"Come in!" Sarah called out. She smiled as their new member opened the door. "Hello, Taylor."

Vicky looked over. "Oh, wow. You had Amy color your hair? It looks great."

"Um, thanks." She shrugged her jacket off and opened her backpack to start pulling out her armored plates.

"Please leave your mask and helmet off," Sarah called out. "We really need to talk about that soon."

Taylor nodded jerkily. "Right."

"It'll give a chance to redesign it again," Vicky said with a laugh.

She gave the older girl a crusty look.

"Okay, Taylor. Sit down and we'll put just the right touch of makeup on so that you look good on stage." Carol pointed at the seat in front of her.

The next half an hour blurred in Taylor's mind as all of New Wave ended up with makeup, even the men. A ringing beep on her phone signalling a text.

'Large crowd.'

"Um, how many people usually come to these things?" Taylor asked. "Because Dad just texted me that there is a large crowd." Taylor looked over to Sarah.

"Usually a few hundred. Mark, since you are free, can you go check."

Mark nodded as he stood up to go check. Five minutes later (all makeup finished for the group!) he came back in. "Ah, Danny isn't wrong. There's over a thousand people out there."

Taylor looked a little green.

"You will be fine. Aunt Sarah will do most of the talking," Amy said as she patted Taylor on her back. "No one here is going to try to break your leg."

The newest member blinked, then looked over at her and straightened slightly. "You're right." She gave a jerky nod.

"All right. Taylor, just stay in between Amy and Vicky. Smile and wave. And remember, they are here _for you_ ," Manpower said as he finished setting his open face cowl. Even his hair looked pretty good.

Lady Photon gave her a smile and a nod, then elbowed her sister. Brandish shot her sister a look. The jerk of her sister's head had Brandish look at Taylor and smile.

"Break a leg," Shielder said in a drawl.

"Eric! Ignore my bratty brother," Laserdream said even as she smiled.

Panacea and Glory Girl bumped her shoulders lightly to signal some closeness.

And then they exited the administration office hall and into the main courtyard where the dull roar of the crowd. In front of the fountain, a temporary stand fifty feet long and twenty feet wide stood ready for them with a small podium.

"Security check," Brandish called out.

Weaver looked over at Panacea with a questioning look.

"Keep an eye out for snipers or gunmen. We should be safe enough, but we _could_ be attacked," the shorter girl said.

"Oh! Right!" Her mind spread out to get a picture of the surrounding area. "A few people with pistols, I think. And a big truck out back that smells like containment foam."

"The PRT sent someone? They didn't let us know," Lady Photon said as she smiled and waved. She pointed with other hand and created a crude, glowing ramp up to the stage.

Several younger boys and girls screamed in excitement, shouting out to their favorites. Panacea blinked in surprise as she heard her name.

"Looking good, Panacea!" one of the girls with her hair back in dreadlocks shouted.

"Hellooooo, Weaver!" a small crowd of teen girls shouted.

Lady Photon walked up to the podium and tap-tapped the microphone. "Hello, Brockton Bay! It's very nice to be here. I can see you are very excited meet our newest member. Weaver darling?" She gestured Weaver over, which made the girl's smile turn a little plastic. "Weaver here joined us after that issue at Winslow High School and decided that she doesn't need a secret identity. Give her a big hand for deciding to be a hero!"

Weaver waved hesitantly at the thunderous applause.

"Thank you, Weaver," Lady Photon said with a soft smile. She turned back to the crowd. "I'd like to think of this as a new phase here for New Wave."

"Keep smiling," Panacea said even as she missed her scarf and hood.

"Sure." She blinked as she picked up someone on the roof of the mall over by one of the secondary courtyards. "There's a guy with a gun on the roof over by that other courtyard in front of us."

"Sniper?"

Weaver narrowed her eyes in concentration as she fought to use the limited bug senses. With agonizing slowness, she finally pulled a simple black and white image.

He knelt next to a pile of gear that she could not fully decipher, but he looked to be wearing SWAT style armor. And opened a box-like case or container that had something that looked like an odd rifle. Or a rifle missing it's barrel.

"I think it's a sniper," she whispered.

"Swarm him, now. Glory Girl, Laserdream; go out the main entrance and capture him," Brandish ordered. "Now!"

The two teens shot off into the air at a fast pace over the crowd, causing some of them to scream.

"He's trying to run for the stairs in that direction," Weaver said as she pointed towards the 'back' of the mall. "And Glory Girl just tackled him."

"Brandish, what's going on?" Lady Photon asked as she scanned around while ready to make a shield at a moment's notice.

"Weaver spotted what looked like a sniper on the roof. Glory Girl and Laserdream just caught him?" Brandish finished with a question to Weaver. Should they look for his fellow culprits? He opened her mouth to continue when her phone rang and interrupted her. "Yes?" she asked. "He was PRT. He's not roughed up too badly, is he?"

"False alarm, folks! This might be a few minutes." Lady Photon wanted to get to the bottom of this, but could not just leave them hanging. "Weaver, why don't you and Panacea answer some questions?"

Weaver's face paled a little bit. "Ah-"

"I'll still be here. I just need to talk to Brandish and find out what was going on," she replied with a smile.

She nodded jerkily as she walked up.

"Don't worry, I'm right here," her best friend said as they arrived at the podium. "Um, hello everyone. Raise your hand if you have a question. Reasonable questions will get answers."

A young girl with bad buck teeth shouted when pointed at. "Is this your new outfit? All my friends think it's much more awesome than that robe thing."

"Yes, it is. Weaver and I made new uniforms for everyone. I got ganged up on and told to wear something that hides me less," Panacea replied to the crowd that cheered a bit for her.

Weaver pointed to a handsome young man in a polo shirt.

"Are you two dating anyone?" he asked. "Oh, sorry. I'm with the Bay City Weekly."

"Um, no. I'm kind of busy with school and being a superhero," Weaver replied as she blushed.

Panacea pointed at an older woman.

"How do you like being with New Wave?" the graying woman asked.

"It's pretty good, especially with friends like Panacea and Glory Girl," she replied.

A geeky looking boy got called next.

"What are your three measurements?"

"Next!" Panacea said while shooting him an annoyed look.

* * *

Half an hour later, New Wave walked up to the PRT light armored vehicle and the troops assigned to it. Off to the side, Vista talked with Armsmaster as she explained the situation with arm gestures and all.

Armsmaster nodded and walked over. "Now that I've been briefed by the PRT officers and the Ward onsite, I would like you reasoning for attacking one of our PRT officers."

"What we were doing, Armsmaster, was reacting to a possible threat after one of our people was attacked by the Empire. So I ordered New Wave to keep an eye out for a possible attack. I didn't think it likely, but it seems someone decided to start setting himself up as a sniper at range and Brandish ordered him taken down before he could potentially shoot one of us," Lady Photon said forcefully.

"Lt. Cooper was only setting himself up as overwatch-"

"Cut the bullcrap, Armsmaster. You tried to sneak in oversight here and your people fucked up. Tay- I mean, Weaver reacted appropriately to someone she was not able to identify that was pulling out the parts of a sniper rifle," Manpower said as he loomed closer.

"He's right. You should have let us know you were here with troops and a Ward, that way this sort of misunderstanding would _not_ happen," Brandish snapped out. "We're independent affiliates for a reason. And that includes not being spied on."

"And when your sniper is doing spotting, they are not supposed to attach the scope to their weapon. Probably for reasons just like this," Lady Photon said.

Armsmaster held up a hand to stop them from talking over him. "I understand you are angry, but Cooper did not intend any harm even if he did not follow procedure."

Lady Photon took a breath. "Fine. We'll call it a mistake. Panacea? Can you deal with his bug bites. New Wave does not want to cause a rift with the PRT and Protectorate. I want to talk to Armsmaster privately for a minute."

Armsmaster jerked his head to the opposite side of the big black vehicle with the spray nozzle on top.

Panacea sighed, but headed to the back of the truck. "Lt. Cooper? Do I have your permission to heal those bites." She felt they should be left as a lesson. But _politics_.

"Sure," the latino said with an easy smile.

"What made you think that even pointing a rifle at a cape was a good idea?" she asked with a bit of an edge to her voice.

"No idea. Just seemed like a good idea. I had no intention of hurting anyone," Cooper said in a sincere tone of voice. Quite believable.

 _Lie_. Every single thing he just said had not a wit of truth about it. Panacea froze for a second, then plastered a fake smile on her face. "There you go. I hope I don't have to treat you in the future."

"You okay?" he asked with a bit of suspicion.

"Just not looking forward to the photoshoot part of today."

"Yeah, the Wards aren't big fan of those either. Now that I think of it, most of the Protectorate isn't."

Panacea nodded and walked away and started to look for Taylor. Then she would go talk to Aunt Sarah. Her brows knit in consternation.

"Hi. Weaver, right?" Vista said as she walked up. She held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Weaver's face dropped all emotion before she tried to smile. "Yes, thanks." She shook the hand. "So what brings you over?"

"I just want to apologize about Sophia. I knew she could be a bit of bitch, but I had no idea she was that two faced. Everyone says that it isn't my fault because I'm the youngest, but I have almost the most experience in the Wards right now. Only Triumph and Aegis have been wards longer than I have. I should have noticed. Oh, hello Amy!" Vista said brightly.

"Hello, Vista. Taylor, Vista is a good person. I'm sure she's telling the truth," the healer explained.

"Oh, um, thanks," Weaver said and coughed uncomfortably. "The PRT has done a lot, but I still blame them for Sophia and well, that whole thing." She waved it off with a gesture of her right hand.

"Most of us chose to join the Wards and really want to be heroes. Even Kid Win," Vista said with a smile on her face. Her smile disappeared as she looked over her shoulder at the PRT Truck thirty feet away. "Say, if anyone asks, just say you heard it around, but I think you should look up information on that new Ward in Anchorage. PHO has some interesting descriptions." She held up a hand. "I need to go now, okay?"

"Of course, Vista. We just happened to read PHO, just like anyone else," Panacea said before Weaver could and gave her a smile.

"Um, sure." Weaver pulled out her Dragon 9 phone and started to pull up the internet.

Her best friend watched Vista walk off. "I've got a bad feeling about that."

"New Tinker Ward debuts?" she responded with. Her eyes rapidly read through the thread. "No fucking way."

"What?" Panacea asked as she looked over her shoulder.

She pulled up a picture to show the Tinker wearing a light 'high tech' armor with glowing blue stripes on it as she wafted out of her _shadow breaker state_. She had to hand it to them, if you didn't look closely, you wouldn't think much of it.

"They promised Carol that they were putting her away," Panacea protested.

"The local PRT just announced that we have a new Ward, too. Some girl named Flechette," Weaver said. "And yeah, let's go talk to your mom."

Panacea drooped a little bit. "I bet we still have to do the photo shoot."

* * *

Coil tapped a finger on his desk as he pondered. Did someone act to block his plans with that girl? His pawn had been removed before he could split his timeline.

It bore some consideration.


	9. Warpath

"God dammit," Armsmaster said in soft fury. He hit the off switch on the Armsbike and kicked out the stand. He then swung his leg off of the bike to stand ready in front of his not very favorite heroes right now. He tapped a button on his helmet. "Armsmaster to Console, Vista and I will be delayed. The PRT truck can depart for return to base. Over." He nodded a second later, then turned back to Lady Photon.

"Should we go someplace more private?" she asked him.

A streak of green warped around the garage in a curve as Vista walked through her tube of compressed space.

"I'm taking control of your coms and blocking all cell phone signals," he told the young girl who nodded. "Let's go to the lowest level, just to be safe." He started walking to the stairs.

Lady Photon, Panacea and Vista followed him down to the lowest level of the parking garage. The rest of new wave followed behind a bit slower.

"Should I put up a forcefield?" Lady Photon asked.

"It's not exactly subtle," Vista said. "Let me just pinch off the area a little bit so that no one can see us easily in the corner."

"Good thinking," Armsmaster said. "Now tell me about Lt. Cooper?"

"I went over to heal him like Lady Photon decided. And I complained about what made him think it was a good idea to point a gun at heroes. And he said that he didn't even think about it and meant no harm at all. And I could tell he lied about _everything_ he just said because I had full access to his biology."

"Cooper has been in the PRT for five years. To think that he could be turned," the leader of the local Protectorate muttered to himself.

"This sounds like you know there is a problem," Lady Photon said as she glared up at the other adult.

Vista made a frustrated face that you could mostly see through her visor. The transparent material warped her face outside of her eyes and made a more effective disguise than you would suspect.

"One or more of the gangs has moles in the PRT. This isn't a total surprise, but we had thought we had identified all of them. We obviously haven't. This one is probably Coil's man," Armsmaster explained.

Weaver looked over. "That guy you think tried to track the moving truck to our new home? And had a team of mercenaries ready to attack us?"

Lady Photon shared a look at her sister and their husbands. At their grim looks, she turned to Armsmaster. "He's breaking the unwritten rules. Hard."

Armsmaster stared at her as Vista looked a bit confused. "You can't retaliate excessively."

"He's attacking us in our homes. We are going to take apart his gang _appropriately_." Lady Photon glared at him in response.

"Oh, shit," Vista muttered.

"I will take that under advisement," Armsmaster said. "Good luck. And good _hunting_."

* * *

"Ain't it a little early for you?" the bartender asked as he took in the figure at the door.

Bright light spilled in, but only barely cut through the gloom of the dinky dive bar. The woman in a winter coat closed the door behind her. "It is early, Will. But I needed to get your ear to the ground."

Will blinked then narrowed his eye at the 'brunette' at the door. "In gumshoe mode today, Carol?"

Carol removed her large, celebrity sunglasses even as she patted to make sure her wig stayed on tight. "Coil's broken the unwritten rules."

"And what do you want me to do about it?" he asked after a long moment as he ran his hand through his almost bald top of hair.

"Well, I would love it if you happened to know where his mercs hung out. Or that you happened to drop a word to your... _white_ clients." Carol's lips curled in disdain. "But I'll accept a drink. Whiskey, neat."

"There's no mistake?" Will asked with a blank face.

"Coil tried to track down Weaver's home address and had his mercenaries close to send in if needed. What does that tell you?" the superhero asked.

Will pursed his lips as he poured the drink in a large, iced shot glass. " _He_ won't like that. You don't go after family."

"We don't know enough about Coil, just that he has money and mercenaries that he knows how to use very well. He could be a Thinker or Master and we just don't know." Carol took a swallow of the whiskey. "And that needs to change."

"I'm sure someone will hear about it. If he's willing to do it to a small player, he might be willing to go after bigger targets at the best time for himself." Will looked towards the front windows for a long moment. "I hear that a few military guys use the Low Tide once every couple of weeks."

"Thanks, Will. I might drop by later," she said. She finished her drink, made a face and then waved to him as she walked out.

* * *

"Okay, team meeting time," Sarah said to the group that had taken over her dining room. "We'll start with the critical matter. Coil has broken the unwritten rules."

Taylor raised her hand from where she sat between Amy and Vicky. "The rule stating you don't attack people at their homes or their family?"

"Exactly right. Trying to track you to your new home was bad news. And he might know where you live from other sources in the PRT." Sara pulled out four small boxes. "These are on loan from Armsmaster and he will deny that he made them or gave them to us. They are tuned to the PRT and police channels and has a smart program on there to alert the holder if key phrases connected to Coil come up," the leader explained.

Danny raised an eyebrow from his corner. His impression of Armsmaster did not fit 'bending rules' into it.

"So we're going to go in and bust heads? Yeah!" Vicky exclaimed.

Mark rubbed his forehead at his daughter's antics.

"Vicky! And no, Coil's advantage right now is that he knows all about us and we know almost nothing about him except he can afford to hire mercenaries with tinkertech weapons," Carol said. She held back a sigh with pure willpower.

"So we're going to try and spy on him? Because our powers kind of stink for that," the blue-haired Eric noted.

"All except our newest member. I'm thinking if we can get close enough to one of Coil's fights against the Empire Eighty-Eight, we can 'bug' his mercenaries and find out where his base is located," Sarah explained.

Neil and Mark both frowned at that. The bigger man spoke up first.

"We have a problem. If we are seen breaking the rules, the other gangs will come after us," the near-giant said.

"At least the appearance thereof. I'm not going to let him hide behind the rules he doesn't follow. But when we move in, we'll go in hard. But only once we have enough information. Do you think you can do your part, Taylor?"

The raven haired girl nodded. "And I think Amy can help make unique bugs that I can notice with my powers and then use Crystal or Vicky to deliver them to the fights before they break up. Then all I have to do is keep within several blocks and we'll have their hideout."

Danny had questions, but upon reflection realized that asking them in front of everyone could come across badly to the team.

"What about the other gangs?" Crystal asked.

"We're trying to drop them a word," Sarah explained. "We don't really have any good contacts for the ABB and Lung is... a wild card. He only sort of plays by the rules."

"Rules we don't even like," Carol muttered to the approval and nods of Mark and Neil.

"Realpolitik, Carol. We won't ignore them if we run into them on accident, but hunting them in their civilian IDs would start a gang war and put a national target on our heads. At least according to the PRT Thinkers."

"That sounds so wrong," Taylor muttered.

Any nodded at her side.

"How did he put it?" Carol said as she thought back. "Oh, right. 'We don't want to see if Kaiser could turn down town into a razorblade trap and kill thousands.'"

"Oh." Taylor looked stunned.

Amy's eyes blinked rapidly.

"So it sucks and it's counter to the whole New Wave idea, but we are heroes and we are not going to be the trigger of a gang war or bloodbath," Carol explained.

Any stared at her mother in open shock.

"Amy, work with Taylor so that we can find Coil. We'll see if you Thinker powers beats his whatever power. Anything else?" Sarah asked everyone.

"Normal patrols?" Neil asked.

"Very much so. I doubt that we can keep this from Coil, but the more we act normal from his perspective, the harder it will be to counter Weaver and Panacea's work," Sarah said. "We are doing at least pairs for patrols and we'll stick _mostly_ to our normal areas, even if it is just downtown. The only major change is that Laserdream, Glory Girl or myself will not be patrolling together and will be on short call notice to see if we can bug some of Coil's mercenaries."

Eric pouted at that. "I wish I could figure out how to fly correctly. This sucks."

"You would probably have more luck if you weren't using up all your free time with going on dates," his sister noted with a smirk.

"Ouch."

* * *

Taylor flopped down on Amy's bed after their trip from the Pelham residence. "I'm sorry for bringing down this huge mess on people."

"No way! This is in no way your fault. We are probably lucky that you caught him breaking the rules before he went after someone else. No skin off my nose if the Empire got outed, but what about the heroes?" Vicky said she sat in the air casually.

"Vicky, quit hovering please," Amy said as she sat next to Taylor. "And she's right, Taylor. This is not your fault."

"I thought being a superhero was supposed to be more straightforward? Punch badguys, heal people and earn the adoration of people everywhere," Taylor said with only a bit of sarcasm.

"Oh, no way. I get people complaining all the time about when I break stuff. PHO got all bent out of shape when I tried to move that one guy's car and accidently broke off his bumper. Uncle Neil made me practice picking up cars properly for two _weeks_. So lame." Vicky landed on the ground softly.

Amy nodded absently even as she thought back over the meeting.

Taylor bumped her shoulder into Amy's shoulder. "Penny for your thought?"

"It's nothing," she replied too quickly.

"That doesn't sound like a nothing," Vicky noted from her seat on the ground.

Amy shot her a betrayed look, then sighed. "It's just, I didn't think New Wave would bend on our principles like that."

Taylor focused on that. "Because you guys don't expect to 'hide' your secrets, it's not fair that the other heroes and villains get to hide behind a secret identity?"

The brunette nodded as she hunched her shoulders.

"I think it's like MAD. Like that old Cold War mutually assured destruction thing. The Protectorate is the largest group of parahumans, but they have to be everywhere. But they won't concentrate themselves to deal with a problem unless it becomes too bad," Taylor said as she thought back to her world history class.

Vicky thought for a second. "So it's weird social stuff? Villains won't all get together to fight the Protectorate and PRT as long as they aren't going after everyone in their secret IDs? Because that really, really sucks." She tilted her head in thought. "So we need to concentrate our forces smartly to take out the badguys one at a time. But without triggering the villains to all gang up on us."

"Sounds like something to think on. So Amy, do you have any idea?" Taylor asked.

"Huh?" she asked in confusion.

"About bugs," the other girl qualified her response with.

"Oh, right. So how do you identify your bugs at distance? And could you bring up some ants or something?"

Vicky held back a sigh. Playing with bugs. She pulled out her phone to start texting to Dean about what she should wear (or not wear) for their next date.

Bugs gathered in between the two girls on the bed. "I just control them based on what they can do. So all the ones that just crawl, I control where they crawl. The ones that can fly, I just control their flight. Same for biting, injecting venoms and all that," the Master explained.

"So you have the ability to understand everything about your bugs automatically. So I could make some bugs that have stingers that only inject irritants and you'd know that? Or that see slightly better?"

Taylor stilled as her brown eyes widened at at Amy. "You can make bugs that see?"

Amy scooped a handful of bugs and started to make a dragonfly with larger eyes. She started to play with its brain to allow it to actually 'see' in color and ultraviolet.

It shot into the air as Taylor squeed in delight. "I can see!" It zoomed back to Amy. "But it's doing that headache buzzing thing to my power again."

"Oh, sorry." Amy scrunched her forehead in deeper thought as she touched it again. "That should be better."

"I'm going to send it out as far as I can go while you make some flying ants, okay?"

Amy nodded as she got to work and studiously ignored her sister's giggling over her phone.

* * *

The slightly dented Greyhound bus screeched and huffed to a halt at the dive of a stop in Brockton Bay, only ten miles from New Hampshire. The young man stood up and looked around. His dark skin stood out dramatically to, well, everyone else in the station. The next darkest person might have some Native American blood in them.

The washed out noon sun barely warmed his shaved head as he took his suitcase and backpack and stepped out onto the street.

"Hey, you fucking nigga! Why don't you go back to your plantation, shit head?" the leader of a quartet of skinheads called out leaning against the wall of the bus station.

"Ain't no plantations in Philly, you inbred moron," he called back with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"What did you just say, you little black monkey?"

"Wow, deaf too. The inbreeding is fierce with you," he shot back.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked as he slipped his hand into his jacket pocket for a knife.

The new arrival to Brockton Bay just smiled an unpleasant looking expression. "Name's Charles. Charles Brown. But you can call me Ice Cold like they did back on the streets of Philly."

The four of them looked confused for a second before they pulled out knives or brass knuckles.

"Man, I thought nobody used names like capes do anymore. You must be a really dumb nigger," the leader said as he twirled his butterfly knife open. "Capes kill names, you know."

"Who said I wasn't a cape?" Charles asked _very_ rhetorically as he dropped the air temperature down to below zero fahrenheit for just a moment within ten feet of himself. Invisible water vapor swirled into their sight. "Boo."

With a yell of fear, they took off down the street. Charles looked around to see scared faces. He gave them a small wave.

"Nothing to worry about folks. I'm a hero," he called out in a forced cheerfully tone. "Just moved to Brockton Bay!"

They all started to move off at a nervous shuffle to begin with.

"Man, tough crowd." Charles just shook his head. He picked up his luggage and started to walk down the street.

* * *

Cricket ran from her cover behind a newer car to duck behind a heavier truck while dodging bursts of gunfire and one laser beam that sizzled the asphalt behind her. After checking out the opposition on the other side of the street, she pressed her artificial voicebox to her throat. "Eight mercz. Can shootz lazerz," she called out in a buzzy voice.

"Back me up," Hookwolf ordered his other follower. The mass of hooked, pointed and serrated metal in a very vague form of a wolf leaped up and onto the car he used for cover. He charged towards the nearest car on the other side of the room and then leaped sideways to dodge most of the lasers.

One of Coil's mercenaries screamed in pain as his bulletproof vest failed to fully stop Stormtiger's air burst.

"Pull back!" the squad leader called out. "Sierra-Sierra!"

Two of the mercs pulled out grenades and tossed them low and fast to deny their enemies the ability swat them back. Deafening bangs and strobing light hit the Empire Eighty-Eight capes senses hard. A second later, off white smoke from two other grenades started to fill the area.

Stormtiger staggered back to cover and started to use his aerokinesis to push the smoke away. By the time his senses cleared up enough, the white van the troops used had disappeared. "Dammit!" he shouted.

Cricket gave him two middle fingers as she tried to walk over to him.

So the blast of energy from the dark sky took her totally by surprise and caused her to slam against the truck in front of her.

Laserdream shot out two blasts are Stormtiger to keep him moving even as she dodged in a swerve sideways as she raced along.

"Bitch! Race traitor!" Stormtiger called out as he sent out two cutting wind bursts at the New Wave member that missed by several feet.

"We're leaving!" Hookwolf snapped as he took off in a random direction.

The aerokinetic grumbled under his breath as he ran over and picked up the near insensate Cricket from the ground and put her over his shoulders and took off at his best wind-assisted speed down an alley.

Laserdream shot up and dropped her forcefield. She shivered at the chilling wind as she tapped her bluetooth earbud. "Got them?"

"I've got them, but they are quite a ways already," Weaver said over her bluetooth headset. She pointed her unlocked phone towards the flyer in the air as the wind whipped her filmy silk poncho of splotchy, gray tones.

Said flyer landed next to her and quickly pulled on her own poncho of mottled grays. "I am so glad we got someone like you on the team," Laserdream said as she picked up the younger and thinner girl with a small grunt. "I may have to get Amy tune me up a little bit."

"Like me?" Weaver asked as she put her hands around Leaserdream's neck.

"A master and thinker. Probably a tinker rating, too. New Wave is too combat focused and I think that's made us less effective and dependent on the PRT and Protectorate for intel," she explained. "Which way?"

"South and then to your left a little bit," she directed them. "A little more left." Now they paralleled the white van that drove casually on a major street.

Ten minutes later, the white van pulled into a nondescript garage for a four story building.

They stopped about a thousand feet away on the rooftop of another, taller building.

Weaver narrowed her eyes behind her new visor on her head. She flew her insects out of the back bumper of the van by the muffler and up above the hanging halogen lights.

The mercenaries piled out of the van and started to spray the van down with professional, industrial grade insecticides from two gallon hand pump sprayers.

"They are spraying for bugs," Weaver explained to Laserdream as they waited. "So they are worried about being followed. And their squad leader informed them they were off rotation for three days."

"Damn. I guess we will have to do a longer stakeout. Let me call and tell my mom, okay?" the older girl asked.

Weaver nodded as she continued to watch them. She pulled out a little notebook and started to scribble information down. Security codes, gun locker numbers and what went where.

"Glory Girl is going to bring us stuff to make watching them a bit better in the cold," Laserdream said a few minutes later.

"Good. It's only going to get colder."

* * *

After school the next day, Taylor sat in the Pelham's dining room and sipped a cup of tea. Earl Grey was the best!

"Okay, let's get started. Carol, will you fill in Vicky later?" their leader Sarah asked her sister.

Carol just nodded.

Her husband put down his cup of coffee. "Any other leads than the stakeout?"

Everyone shook their head.

Amy looked over at Crystal. She shot a quick glance over to her adoptive mother. "Um, how is your back and shoulders doing, Crystal?"

"Better. And it's helped with carrying Taylor around when I have to. I'm not sure on the shoulder's width, but eh? What can a hero do?" she said with a shrug.

Sarah looked over to Amy. "Oh? You helped Crystal with lugging around our thinker? Should Eric and I do that, too?"

"If you want. I'm just speeding up the body's building of strong muscles without getting gross or something," Amy replied.

"Sorry for being heavy," Taylor said with a small frown.

"You are not doing anything wrong, Taylor," Sarah said with emphasis. "We can't all be Manpowers like Neal."

"Of which I am grateful," the giant man said with a grin.

The doorbell rang in the background.

"I'll get that," Mark said as he stood up and walked out of the room to check the doorbell camera.

"Hey Sis, I think you made an archenemy of Cricket. PHO is awash with people saying that you 'dishonorable' attack on her back," Eric said in his best 'annoying brother' tone.

"Yeah, I should just challenge Hookwolf and his two murder-toadies right up front," the older sibling shot back.

"Can I quote you on that?" he asked.

"No," their mother said to cut the verbal spat from getting worse.

"Ahem," Mark said. "We have a visitor."

Everyone turned to look at the new man at the entrance to the dining room.

"Hello, all! My names is Charles Brown. _Not_ Charlie or Chuck, please. And I am here to solve a New Wave problem," he said as he calmly looked around at all of them.

"And what problem is _that?_ " Carol asked with narrowed eyes.

"Your color problems, brothers and sisters. I'm here to join New Wave and cut those rumors about white superiority down," he said with a big smile.

Everyone stared at him for a long time.

"So I take it you are a parahuman then?" the leader of New Wave asked as she looked at him intently.

"Ice Cold!" Crystal and Taylor blurted out.

"That's right. An independent hero from Philly and no secret identity so to speak. Figured that coming here to Brockton Bay was the right thing to do. New Wave needs me and the heroes here need diversity."


End file.
